An Old Problem
by Au Hunter
Summary: This takes place after Valhalla/ Lauren. A different view of what happens afterwards.
1. Loneliness

**Chapter 1: Loneliness1**

It was pouring rain outside. Lightning was lighting up the city with its powerful flashes of light.

As she sat starring out the window overlooking the city, hot tears slid silently down her face just like the rain outside.

Her gun sat next to her on the table, close to her hand.

Emily was in deep thought about the turn of events that left her so lonely.

It had only been a week since Emily saw JJ at the café here in Paris. But the pain inside was still raw. She really missed everyone in the BAU, her family.

What had she done? The people she loved so much didn't deserve all this!

She eyed the gun, all she had to do was extend out her hand and grip the weapon, then end the nightmare. It would be over in seconds.

Emily flexed her fingers towards it, but almost as if it was a snake, she pulled her hand back again. She wiped the tears away and with heart wrenching guilt. Em thought about not being able to confide in her friends about what was going on – for having to be so secretive, deceiving.

Now she regretted having to be away from the love, safety and sanctity that the team could have provided.

But fear was starting to creep into the back of her mind. Fear was not something that she was used to and it petrified her.

Yet, there was something else more terrifying starting to also worm its way into her that she hadn't detect yet, darkness.

She secretly wished that there was someone with her, to be able to talk and to be able to open her heart. Then she imagined all their faces, the good times with JJ, Garcia, Morgan, Spencer, Derek, Dave and Aaron.

Subsequently, Aaron's face took place of everyone else. The look that he would give her with those beautiful brown eyes and the small smile with the dimples showing that he reserved for her eyes alone, the thought warmed her heart a little. God how much she missed him! Why couldn't she have trusted him more with this burden? He would have tried his damnedest to protect her from the monster that had risen from the grave. They could have tried to come up with a solution. That is why this team was so damn good at their jobs.

"No!" Emily thought to herself. She had to remember why she sacrificed all to save her beloved family.

Deep down in her soul, Emily knew what had been done was right. Em knew that she had compartmentalized everything, but her emotions and pain made it difficult to forget. She had to move on with her existence.

Looking at her gun, she realized that it wasn't the answer because Doyle was still out there. He had to wiped off the face of Earth.

Emily realized that there has to be somewhere on the planet that was a quiet, safe and out of the way place for her. Somewhere she could let her body mend, even though some mental scars would never be healed. She also knew that she had to get on with her task.

Emily had started thinking of whom, from her past could she contact. Where have most of her contacts gone, when Ian escaped from prison? Granted a lot of them were killed in the first wave of violence created by Doyle.

After one more look out the window at the city's skyline Emily sighed, and turned to get ready for bed. Another long lonely night was upon her as she crawled in bed and closed her eyes to rest. Images of her friends and families floated aimlessly in her imagination.

As Emily got up early the next morning, snuck out of her hotel room to grab a cup of coffee and then head back to her room. She had to remember where she could find a forger to get papers and documents for a few more countries. While committing to memory all the names and locations that she could recall, she set about repacking her bag.

Afterwards, Emily checked her Glock and put it into her holster behind her back, then put a leather jacket over it. She headed out the door after a quick look around the room.

After glancing around the parking lot a couple of times, making for sure no one was around; Emily slid into the driver's side of the rental car and pulled out her phone.

Emily spoke to an old friend, named Anthony, trying to convey her question carefully. Nodding as she heard the answer, she closed the cell phone. Emily thought to herself, "One down, a few more to go."

1 Inspired by the song: "Witness" by: Winger: Album: Karma


	2. Prague

**Chapter 2: Prague**

Emily was just finishing up with getting her new identity documents and passports, when Anthony mentioned to her that she might want to contact someone who shared a common interest in an old friend of hers. He explained to her that a lot had changed since she was last out in the game. The hunt had taken on a whole new life.

Peaking Emily's interest, she accepted the information which had a phone number and address. Tony also had another passport for Prague, Czechoslovakia for her and said that there was a plane ticket in her name waiting for her at the airport.

After leaving Anthony's place she walked over to her car and headed straight to the airport.

After landing in Prague, she rented a car and made it over to a small café' that was off the well traveled main road. She walked in and sat in a dark corner and placed her order for some coffee. After the waitress walked away, Emily pulled out the slip of paper that Anthony had given her and dialed the number. She was a little hesitant at first, because she trusted her instincts... But, for some reason, this felt safe; she couldn't put her finger on it yet as to why.

As the person on the other end answered, she said the key phrase that Tony had given her. The male on the other end was silent for a couple of seconds, and then replied, "We accept and will be there in 5 minutes," and then he hung up.

Emily thought this over for a minute and thought it a little strange. Never once did she tell him anything like who she was, where she was located or how to identify her. This was either a huge mistake or this could be a turning point. All she knew was she would find out all too soon.

As she was contemplating her circumstances, she noticed four men approach the front of the café'. One stayed outside and the other three walked in the front. The second man stayed at the front, the third stopped about half way to the front door and the fourth man approached her. He was a tall very good looking blond haired, blue eyed, well built man. As he approached her he smiled. Emily shifted the safety off of her Glock under the table.

"May I have this seat?" he asked Emily in German.

"Please." She replied back in German.

He didn't say anything at first except to pull his left hand out of his pocket and put a small device down between them.

Then he spoke first in English, "There now, we can speak freely."

"My name is Kurt and I think I know why you are here." He said to Emily.

Emily shifted uncomfortably.

"There won't be a need for your Glock right now, but if it made you feel better you can leave it trained wherever you would like. I am one of the few who understand who you are trying to hide from," Kurt continued to speak and look Emily in the eyes, so she could see that he was not lying to her.

"We will not speak of HIM at this time, but feel reassured that not one of his men are here right now or anywhere within 50 miles of our present location, ok?" he finished.

For some reason, Emily was actually starting to relax while Kurt spoke to her. It did not pass Emily's attention when she also saw that the other two men occasionally were sneaking glances and smiles graced their handsome faces when she would notice them. They were reassuring her that it would be all right, it was a strange sight. As Emily slipped the safety back on her Glock and tucked it back into it holster, Kurt broke into an infectious smile and also relaxed visibly.

"Why don't you fill me in as to what this meeting is about," Emily said quietly to Kurt.

"Tony let us know you were in Paris and that we were told to help you out wherever possible. Now having seen who you are, we were right in coming. We are part of a larger organization that is on the hunt of some really nasty people across the globe. Our number one target is someone you were quite acquainted with at one time." Kurt replied.

Emily spoke again, "I don't know who you think I am, or what I may have been involved with, I'm just vacationing here."

Kurt flashed a look of curiosity at her and acknowledgement, "Don't worry Ms. Emily, no one and I mean No One will ever hurt you now that we have found you." "You went to war by yourself against this evil, year ago, but the world has gotten a little smaller since Valhalla." He spoke very softly

Emily was very startled by this admission. She was not sure how to reply back, so she let Kurt continue as he put up a hand to stop her from speaking.

"We know what happened back in Boston and why you were in Paris. We have had someone with you the entire time since your friends, in the BAU, found you in that warehouse. They just never realized that we took over your protection detail. We had to let you run the courses of trying to make yourself invisible. We also realized that you would head to Anthony, since he was a friend. Luckily we have been able to protect him also. But, I must please beg you to not let Clyde know where or what you are going to do."

Emily was astonished by what Kurt was telling her. "How or why are you doing this?" was what she found to ask Kurt.

"We picked up where the JTTF-12 left off. We just didn't realize, until recently, that someone had become a double agent. We knew we had to set up this meeting and explain as much as possible. But, I have to stop here and ask you a simple question, if you don't mind?" Kurt asked.

From all that Emily had just learned, there wasn't much else that could possibly surprise her, if he asked any question. So she said, "Go ahead, and ask away."

Kurt looked at her with admiration and spoke again, "Do you trust me?"

Emily hadn't seen that one coming since she had just met this man. "I really could not tell you whether or not yes or no. But, let's just say yes, right now."

"Great, that's good enough for me." Kurt said as he stood up and offered her his hand.

"We need to get you someplace other than here or your hotel. So if you would please join me, I would like to offer you an alternative place to stay for the next day or so." Kurt said looking at her for an answer.

Emily was quite taken aback at this sudden change in plans. On the other hand, why did she feel she could trust this man with her life? As an answer, she looked at his hand for a moment then reached out with her smaller hand to accept his invitation.

This was all the answer that Kurt needed as he helped her up and linked her arm on his. As they walked towards the front they picked up the extra escorts that were watching intently.

They stepped into the cool evening air, as a SUV pulled up in front and Kurt helped her inside. Emily noticed that the others watched the area around them. After Emily was settled inside, the other men joined them and Kurt went around and got in beside her.

The ride was not long from the café'. The back of the home they pulled up to a short time later was covered and protected, Emily noticed. There were men ready with their weapons. As soon as they drove inside, a door slide down to cut the view from prying eyes.

Emily's door was opened by one of the armed guards and he extended a hand to help her out, he also wore a smile on his good looking face.

Kurt was right at her side as he lead her inside the home. The house was moderately furnished, but what was there, looked comfortable.

He led her to a cozy looking padded chair. When she sat down she realized that all her worry and guard seemed to be slipping a little. What was it about these men?

Several others came in and laid an assortment of breads, cheeses, meats, fruits and vegetables, beverages before her.

Kurt looked at Emily and he could tell that she was a little overwhelmed by it all. Also she was showing signs that she was a little reluctant, even though he could tell that she hadn't eaten properly in a while. So he sat across from her and tried each item, so that Emily would know that nothing was poisoned or drugged.

Emily smiled at Kurt once she realized what he was doing for her. Her stomach voiced its opinion, as it grumbled at her. So she took a plate and filled it up with everything that looked wonderful. Then she settled back in her chair for this discussion.

Emily spoke as she enjoyed the food and the company, "Ok, let's get down to it. Who are all of you and what is going on?"

Kurt chuckled at her bluntness and then he introduced some of the other men in the room. Then he tried to explain who and what they were.

"We are made up of individuals from practically all the security, military and special branches of different governments all over the world. Our main mission is to combat terrorism all over the globe. But our branch has a special purpose. We were brought together to try and not only take down one cell, but to also hunt down the moles that are currently in places, where frankly they shouldn't be." Kurt said bluntly.

Emily was very curious about the last part, but she wanted to know more so she asked, "So why have you been interested in me?"

Another man, whom Emily had just been introduced to, named Daven, spoke, "Don't worry Ms. Emily. We are not on a recruiting trip here, you've done your time and it's our turn."

Daven smiled, "We are just glad we found you, when we did. We know what CWS started several years ago with the CIA. They went fishing for Valhalla, but they let that fish slip out of it hands." He continued, "The world has become a much more dangerous place since then. We intend to take him out."

Smiling again at her, he said, "In your case, we are just glad to be able to help out along the way."

"So you are going after Doyle?" replied Emily.

"Yes and so many others like him," answered Daven, "But we were wondering if you might be available, for a while, to guide us along with your inside knowledge of the subject?"

"Well, I can tell you one thing for sure, you won't get to him with just the few people I've seen so far" answered Emily back, "And are you ready to give up all that you considered good?"

"Ms. Emily," Kurt spoke again, "We have a lot larger base than you could ever imagine and we are not restricted by any laws."

"If you agree to it, we will put you in deep protection for the time being, until we get into our further stages. That way we can get you all healed up and ready for the fight." Daven answered her question. "It will only be for a few weeks more and we will be in better position to get our operations started.

"What can I do to help; I'm not in much physical shape right now. Plus most of the people I've worked with in the past are either dead or in deep hiding." Emily responded back.

"Don't worry about anything, except getting better. Then when it's time, we will bring you back. Ok?" Kurt countered.

"We will stay back far enough to not appear as nags, but we will be there for you if it is needed. So what do you think?" Daven questioned.

Emily sat there for a few minutes, contemplating this whole shift in the arrangements. These men were genuinely concerned for her and her safety. Their offer seemed fair and she was being afforded something that she really needed right now – safety and security. Much less, the possibility of being able to heal up in her own way, without having to move all the time was appealing to her. She couldn't argue with their logic about the whole thing. But she still had one nagging question that was burning a hole in her brain to get answered.

"I'll agree to this whole thing as long as I find out a couple of things," Emily replied to the men with her.

Kurt and Daven shared a glance and nodded their heads as they agreed to her questions.

"How deep are these moles that you are trying to flush out and where are some of them located?" Emily asked.

Daven nodded to Kurt, who spoke next, "We believe that they have infiltrated: MI5, Scotland Yard, CIA, Interpol and the FBI, along with various other agencies around the world. We don't know until our first operation commences."

Emily was thunderstruck to hear this news. "Do all the agencies involved know about this problem?"

"No, not everyone," Daven confirmed, "We haven't contacted a couple yet, but they will be brought into the fold once we check out a few things first."

Emily could only think of her friends, she wanted to warn them of all the dangers that were mounting against them. But, in her heart, she knew that would be disastrous and jeopardize this operation of Kurt and Daven's. She felt that this was a lot more extensive than these men were letting on to her right now. Her heart also told her to trust them.

Emily told the two that she pledged to help in whatever was to come.

With that, Daven looked to Kurt and begged his leave from them. But before he left he walked over and kissed her hand, and told her to get some rest.

Emily looked to Kurt once they were alone. Kurt had a pleased look on his face. Then he looked at Emily and spoke, "Now if you would like, I can show you to where you can get a nice shower and a room that we had made up for you. I will have our doctor come up and attend to your wounds. Then you can crawl in bed and get some much needed rest. Oh and one more thing, we will have a 24 hours guard provided for your disposal. What ever it might be, don't hesitate to ask. Ok?"

Emily was mildly surprised by the offer, not that she was in any way able to argue. "Ok, let's get this started," she answered.

With that, Kurt was on his feet in an instant and offered his hand to help her up. He led her down a hallway, then up a set of stairs. He entered what would be her room, which was large with a large bed and off to the side it had its own bathroom with a shower, plus a bath. Someone had gotten some toiletries for her already. There was also a closet off to the side of the bathroom, with some clothes already hung in there for her.

Kurt also showed Emily an intercom system, in case she needed to get a hold of him or Daven at anytime she needed something or just to let the guys know if she needed anything brought up to her.

After showing her around, he said to let him know when to send up the doctor to attend to her injuries. Emily said that she would call, when she was ready to see the doctor. Then Kurt left her, so she could have some time to herself.

Once Kurt left, Emily looked around the room and headed to the dresser, which had a couple of pajamas, clean underwear, socks – hell, all the comforts of home.

Emily picked out what she wanted and headed to the bathroom. She stripped off all the clothes and climbed into the shower.

It felt wonderful to get clean and wash her hair with shampoo that smelled like strawberries and vanilla. It was the most relaxing shower she had in a long time. Finally Emily made it out and dried herself off, then redressed into her night clothes. After that, she put in a call to Kurt, asking for the doctor to be sent up. He was knocking almost seconds after she talked to Kurt.

"Good evening Ms. Emily," he said shyly, "I'm Doctor Frances and I will attend to you while you're with us."

Emily noticed that he had a copy of all her medical files from Bethesda Medical Center, but something else struck her. She looked at the doctor intently and finally asked, "You were my doctor back at the center weren't you?" "I'm surprised you remembered that. But to answer your question, yes I was one of your doctors," He said with a smile.

So for the next hour he tenderly took care of all her injuries and talked. Then before he left, he inquired as to if she needed anything to help her sleep. At her hesitation he said with a small smile, "You've got to get some rest, and I promise it won't be heavy. You can trust us."

Emily relaxed again and agreed to it for one good night of rest. Dr. Frances gave it to her and reminded her to call if she needed anything else.

As the doctor was leaving, Emily noticed outside her room a guard was standing there, he tipped his hat to her and told her to get some sleep. She nodded at him and closed the door and walked over to the bed and crawled into it. Emily laid there for quite a while, contemplating this turn of events, in the last 24 hours; from being totally alone and afraid; to being in the capable hands of a half dozen good, honest, respectful and loyal men. It was a little overwhelming and she silently cried a little while before drifting off into a sound sleep.


	3. MIA

**Chapter 3: MIA**

Hotch had been across town in a meeting for the majority of the morning, and was heading back to Quantico, when his phone rang.

"Hotchner" he spoke. He listened for a few minutes before answering, "Understood, I'll be there in 5 minutes."

He pulled the SUV into a parking place at the park along the Potomac River. He got out and he walked over to the predestinated bench, and sat down next to the pretty blond.

"Ok JJ, what's going on?" Hotch asked.

Before JJ replied, she pulled a device out and set it down between them. It flashed red, and then green which meant that is was working.

"Nice new toy, you have there," Hotch dryly commented.

"Yeah well some of my friends at DOD and State both thought that this might come in handy," she said as she reached in her other pocket, and then handed the second device to Hotch. Then he slipped it in his jacket.

"What's going on with all the cloak and dagger stuff? Why was there all this secrecy?" Aaron asked seriously.

"From what my sources are telling me, we can never be too careful with our conversations right now, no matter where we are." JJ replied cryptically. "I have bad, worse, and even worst news. Which would you like to hear first?"

This wasn't going to be good either way, Hotch thought to himself, so he turned his stoic look to her and said, "Your choice, you tell me which I want to hear first."

JJ snorted, "I'll give you the business end first, then." She continued, "It looks like there are moles in our midst, in every house of the cards. Unfortunately, they are so well placed even deep throat couldn't find them right now."

This was definitely not news that Hotch was expecting.

"This is really bad Hotch," JJ said looking into Aaron's eyes. "As I was told, trust no one and keep your enemies very close."

Hotch pondered her advise, "Do we know what they are after?"

JJ replied back to Hotch, "No we have no idea what areas have been compromised the most."

Aaron shook his head at this latest development.

After committing the information to memory, he looked at JJ again and said, "So I take it that this was the worst news, so what's the rest?"

"Well you're not going to like this, but that wasn't the worst of the news," JJ said carefully. She looked out over the river to look at DC before continuing.

Hotch just stared at JJ, what could be worse than what she had just told him? He braced himself for the rest. How bad could it be?

JJ sighed and spoke very quietly at first, where Hotch had to almost strain to hear her. "We have had a report come in from Europe."

Then, turning to look into Hotch's eyes, "Emily has completely fallen off the grid. She is now being considered MIA."

Hotch was shocked, "But how?" I thought we had eyes on her at all times?" He asked angrily.

"We did, and then all of a sudden, she was gone. All of our people have been trying to find her, but she's just disappeared." JJ replied heavily.

"I guess this sag ways' into the worst news that I have for you. Doyle knows that Emily is alive." JJ continued as Hotch snapped his head around to look at her as she continued, "We don't know how yet."

"Does Doyle have her?" his voice betraying the raw emotions that he was feeling right now.

"It doesn't seem to look like it. His men were close, but they didn't seem aware of her presence," JJ informed him.

Hotch inquired, "Where was she, when she disappeared?"

"Paris," JJ replied, "One minute there, then nothing, gone."

"Damn," Hotch said, revealing to JJ just how much Hotch had cared. After a few minutes Aaron spoke again, "Well I guess we can hope for the best and pray we will see her resurface again some place. Keep me informed, ok?'

JJ laid a hand on of Hotch's clenched fists and said, "Don't worry Hotch, she's fine, I can feel it."

"Let's hope your right," He commented back to JJ.

Hotch got up, put his hands in his pockets and walked away.

JJ sat for a few more seconds before picking up her little device and slipping it back in her pocket. She turned and watched Aaron walk away with his head down and slumped shoulders. JJ thought to herself, of how hard he was taking the news. But, on the other side, she knew that they had to push on with the more pressing matters at hand.


	4. New Case

**Chapter 4: New Case**

The FBI's most elite Behavioral Analysis Unit Team 1 had been asked to help on a case in Canada. Men and women were being abducted, tortured, the bodies would be mutilated and then dumped out in the middle of no where. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were frustrated by the lack of evidence and it concerned them that their head count was rising steadily. They were at a dead end.

Hotch and Rossi went to the scene with some of the Mounted Police, to try and help expand the search area further.

When they got out of the SUV, the two men went over to check the dump site because they heard that it was gruesome. Four more bodies had been hacked up: blood was everywhere, which meant that the bodies were fresh when they were dismembered. The pieces were scattered all within a small area. So they set out to help look for more remains with the Mounties.

JJ, Morgan, and Reid had stayed behind at the station and split up the work. JJ and Morgan set up interviews with the families. Reid was trying to make sense out what little evidence that they had been able to find so far from the six murders. Out there in the wild, there were very few homes, which meant no witnesses.

The Mounties had found a small set of tire tracks that weren't covered up in the snow. But, that was about all they could find out here.

The Medical Examiner was almost done loading the bodies to take them back to the morgue for further examination.

It was early evening when the Canadian police called a halt to the search for the evening, so Hotch took in one more look around the site and then decided that they should head back to town also.

As he mentally put the grisly images of the victims in to right box for compartmentalizing, he decided to look at the view to get a little more cheerful image in his head. Aaron looked around admiring the beautiful mountains: the evergreens were dusted with the snow at the higher elevations, and a large eagle could be seen hunting for food. Somewhere close by, a river could be heard flowing down the mountains. It was so quiet and peaceful and peaceful. "He could easily live somewhere like this," he thought to himself, "away from the hustle and bustle of the city life."

Hotch pulled up the collar of his heavy coat and took a deep breath of the cold, fresh, clean air, then headed back to the SUV.

Rossi knew his old friend well. After looking over the dump site of the murders, he knew there wasn't much that they could learn from here that would help in finding the serial killer who did this. So Rossi turned his attention towards Hotch.

They have said very little to each other, but he could tell that Hotch was being bothered by something. But Dave could easily guess what was on Aaron's mind. His eyes and body language screamed that he was still hurting. It had only been a few weeks since Emily's funeral and his friend had withdrawn into the fortified fortress of his mind.

Rossi hated not being able to penetrate those walls, but if he waited patiently for the right time then he might be able to push the envelope and broach the subject of Emily, to try to get Hotch to open up about how he felt since her death.

He heard the sigh his friend let out before he headed back to the SUV. This was going to be another quiet ride back to the police station. Hotch reached the vehicle first and taken a step up on the running board to get in, when he noticed a flash of light up on one of the nearby mountains.

At first he thought it was his imagination, but when it happened a second time, he knew that they were being watched.

As Rossi was stepping up on the running board of the vehicle he noticed that Hotch had frozen. He asked, "What is it?"

"Look up casually at the small mountains slightly to the right; I just spotted a glint of light, like binoculars or a rifle scope." Hotch continued.

As Hotch got into the SUV, Rossi decided to pretend to take another look at their surroundings, but his eyes were glued to the spot Aaron just described.

Sure enough, he saw the reflection too, all the hairs on his neck stood up. Hotch had been right. Rossi quickly climbed in and Hotch got the vehicle moving.


	5. Unexpected Surprise

**Chapter 5: Unexpected Surprise**

Just up the road a little from the dump site, they found a narrow dirt road that seemed to lead up to the mountain.

The scenery was beautiful, but that didn't seem to faze the two men.

After a long trip up the winding road, they finally could see a clearing up ahead. There was a small cabin sitting towards the edge of the mountain. Hotch stopped the SUV short of the tree line, to hide them better and block the escape route off the mountain. They figured out which way would be the best to approach the cabin.

Neither one of them could see anyone outside. Nor were there any foot prints in the fresh snow.

Rossi could see smoke coming from the chimney. He also noticed a 4x4 SUV covered with a tarp, hidden in the woods nearby and covered with snow. The person inside the cabin hadn't moved that vehicle in a couple of days, by the look of it.

They were going to have to approach this carefully, since they did not bother to tell the Royal Canadian Mounties what they had seen or what they were getting ready to do.

Both men put on the Kevlar FBI vests and pulled out their guns.

There were no windows on the back side of the cabin, so they approached the back door.

Hotch listened for a couple of seconds, but not hearing anything from within he reached out and tried the door. It was unlocked, so he quietly opened it up.

After giving the 1-2-3 signal, they both entered the cabin. The inside was not all that large, but it still was very spacious. Whoever was there must still be around, because there was coffee brewing and some bacon sizzling in a pan over the fire.

Then they spotted a person standing in front of the large bay window, with their back to them. The person had on a long white down jacket with a hood covering up their head and they had on white winter boots, perfect clothing for blending into the wintery scene outside.

Rossi and Hotch looked at one another and started to quietly approach the individual.

Then it happened.

Neither one of the two had heard anything before they made out the distinctive feel of ice cold metal of barrels pressed to the base of their skulls. They closed their eyes in disbelief and immediately put their hands up in the air.

Then someone spoke to them in French, "Leave now and never come back."

Neither one of them could speak French, so Hotch started to say that they didn't understand.

The person behind them spoke again, this time in Italian, which Rossi was fluent in, "Leave now and never come back."

He translated the phrase to Hotch. Both looked at each other out of the corner of their eyes. They had thought the same thing; this was a woman that they were dealing with.

Rossi spoke to her in Italian, "We are looking for someone who has any information about the murders that are going on around this area. Since we noticed that you were watching us, we figured you could possibly help us."

The woman behind them replied in Italian, "No, I know nothing – now leave and do not come back here again."

After a few seconds of silence between the three of them, the woman shifted her weight slightly, leaning closer to Hotch. She spoke to him quietly in English, "Of all the places in this world for you to be. Why are you here, now?"

Hotch stiffened upon hearing her question.

Rossi overheard the statement/ question and squinted in concentration, until it dawned on him.

He finally exclaimed, "Wait a damn minute." Turning slowly with his hands still up, until he was facing Hotch beside him.

He could see who the woman was out of the corner of his eye and said, "You're dead."

Looking at Hotch again, Dave said with his voice full of anger, "You've got some 'splaying to do Lucy."


	6. Consequences

**Chapter 6: Consequences1**

The woman released the pressure of the barrel of both guns and put her arms down, slipping the safeties back on both weapons.

Both men put their arms down, but Hotch was having problems turning around to meet the eyes of the woman behind him.

Hotch sighed, his shoulder slumping, he couldn't face her. He knew deep down that he must.

His heart ached and he took a couple of steps away from the other two, who were waiting for his reaction.

Rossi couldn't stand it though. He holstered his weapon and spun around to fully face the woman. He glanced up and down the woman. She looked awful thin, her eyes were sunken in, her cheeks protruded out a little and she was very pale. Her eyes looked dead and lifeless; it was disturbing and very unnerving to Rossi.

Rossi could not believe his own eyes; she had to be a ghost or a dream.

The woman walked past him and laid her weapons down on the kitchen counter. She said nothing, but walked over to the stove and removed the bacon that was cooking. Then she turned and leaned against the counter, her eyes watching Rossi. These deep brown pools sent shivers down Rossi's spine, but they told him a lot. There were many emotions being flashed across them, and her body language screamed that she was not, in any way, pleased to see them.

Rossi couldn't stand the tension in the room; his usual calm, cool manner was crumbling. "Will someone please tell me what the Hell is going on?" he finally asked looking from Hotch back to the woman standing there.

It was Hotch who finally gave in and turned slowly to face the other two people. She didn't even look at him.

Rossi's mouth dropped slightly as Hotch said, "Dave I couldn't tell you, we were under orders, I'm sorry," his voice betraying the emotional battle that was raging within. "We had to let everyone think that Emily was dead, to protect her," Hotch tried to explain.

Rossi could tell this was going to take a while for an explanation, so he sat down in the nearest chair. The truth be told, he thought his legs wouldn't hold out much longer.

She walked over and took a folder out of a leather briefcase and handed it to Rossi, along with an envelope. Then took off the white parka and laid it over one of the arms of the chairs in the kitchen. Even with the bib of the ski outfit Emily had on he could actually see that she had lost a significant amount of weight. Her ribs were showing through her shirt and her arms were barely twigs. He also noticed a small device clipped to the bib of her snowsuit, its light was glowing red until Emily unconsciously reached up and hit a small button on it then it switched over to a green light. Rossi felt completely horrible at seeing Emily in this state, but he tore his eyes off her to see what she had given him.

As Hotch explained the events of the last several weeks, Rossi saw the name on the envelope and slid it in his jackets inner pocket, afterward he opened the file and saw that they were her medical records. As he read the pages and saw the condition she had been in, his heart was breaking. He couldn't even imagine that this was Emily in the pictures. A lot of damage had been done when she had been tortured by Doyle. Then there was the fight between them when she ahs somehow gotten away from Ian. Emily had been beaten so severely, raped multiple times, burned and impaled.

She had broken bones everywhere from her face to her feet. The table leg had imbedded so far into her that some major organs were severely damaged and her spleen had to be removed. Emily had a lung collapse and a severe concussion also. The broken ribs would have taken a while to heal. The fractures in her hand would have rendered her hand useless at the time. The burned skin of left breast would scar, but never go away. The broken nose and bruised jaw was probably the only things that were minor. The doctors had even induced a coma for several weeks for her to recover.

Rossi looked up at Emily in amazement, how could she be still walking around after all that, he wondered. How she survived was by no means nothing short of a miracle.

He shook his head at that thought. She really was a Wonder Woman. The sad part was that she went through all of the healing and rehab process by herself. But, how many of the emotional and mental scars were healing properly? Also, how much more is she going to have to endure before this was over? Rossi's heart ached for her.

Emily remained silent; she turned, got out three coffee mugs out of the cabinet and poured the steaming hot liquid into each.

She picked up Rossi's, then proceeded to walk over and hand it to him. Their fingers touched for a brief moment as he took the mug from her. She didn't flinch away, but lingered and her eyes softened for a split second. Then Em turned away to retrieve the other mug and place it near Hotch, but this time she didn't touch him, Rossi noticed.

Emily walked over to the counter, instead of picking up her coffee; she reached towards the two Glocks and placed them into the holsters that were strapped to her thighs. After they were secured; it was then that she picked up her mug and turned her attention back to the struggling Hotch.

"After surgery, Emily was moved to Bethesda Medical Center until she was strong enough to be moved into protective custody, and eventually released to go into hiding," Hotch explained.

Rossi could tell by the look of anger that flashed in Em's eyes that there was more to the story, but she was choosing to remain quiet about it, for now.

"JJ met up with Emily in Paris, through her DOS contacts, Emily was given three new passports and enough money from the three countries to keep her comfortable, "Hotch related the story to Rossi.

As Hotch was filling in the details, Rossi kept Emily in the corner of his eye – something was definitely different about her. He knew that she could out compartmentalize anyone else that he had ever met before. But, there was something else wrong here – cold and distant, almost like a totally different person standing there.

Hotch continued, but this time looking up at Emily, "Paris was the last place that we knew where you were. JJ thought you were in deep hiding there, but I guess you aren't. Then we learned that Doyle had found out that you were still alive. At one time, we thought that maybe he had you again."

There was a strained moment between them as both fell silent.

Emily spoke very softly but with a hint of bitterness, "I had no say so in what followed after Derek found me at the warehouse. No, nothing what so ever. After surgery, I was transported to a non-descript plane from Bethesda Medical Center, dropped off left alone and hurting in Paris. Too tell you the truth, I wish that I had never come out of that coma. Even though I survived, a part of me died that day. That is until I came to a decision about a week after meeting JJ, that I needed to be completely off the grid quickly. I contacted a few people whom I knew were still out there, who I could trust to help me acquire the proper documents I needed. After leaving Paris, I traveled a short time but then I found out that Ian had learned the truth about my second death and he is coming for me. The people I met up with they helped me re-accessorize, and then they got me out of the country safely."

Emily continued after taking a sip of her coffee, "I came to Canada, to start the mental healing and physical retraining that I needed before starting my hunt for Doyle. My contacts are also taking measures back in Europe to help me when I am ready to go back. I intended to only be here a few more days, now that I have put my life back into perspective." She said with coldness in her voice.

Em hesitated for a second before continuing, this time with a little anger in her voice and her eyes leveled at Hotch, "Then what happens, you two show up, which means that the team is also here on a case. I only hope that Ian doesn't have eyes on you."

She hesitated for a moment before changing the path of the conversation, "I spotted the police activity below and you can imagine my surprise seeing the two of you here. Somehow you must have seen something, and what do you do? You get in the SUV and actually drive on up here. Well that hasn't helped much," Emily said.

Then her features softened when she looked over at Dave, "I pray that someday you and the team will be able to forgive me. I didn't run as I am sure that everyone thought. I had to get Ian's attention and draw his attention towards me. What happened next, well…? Hopefully you will never know what it feels like to be ripped away from your family and put in exile, to realize that you will probably never feel comfort or safety again. That is if you ever live long enough; to be alone at the end of your life or have no one know why you did it was out of love," She said.

Aaron actually flinched at her words Rossi noticed.

Rossi's eyes were filling up with tears as he looked straight into Emily's eyes, he could see the truth and hurt in the beautiful brown eyes of hers. His heart felt like it was being crushed to death. No one had ever made him feel like he could no longer breathe. But at this present moment, that was exactly the power she possessed.

It felt like suffering a whip lash as Emily pulled her gaze away.

She walked past Hotch to move the coat rack out of the way, (which had her long jacket on it and her boots below to give it the appearance of a person) to look out the bay window.

All Rossi could do was look from Em to Aaron, who seemed completely dazed, but had silent tears streaming down his crest fallen face.

The weight and magnitude of Emily's words were tearing at Aaron like nothing else could possibly do. Even the death of Haley hadn't caused this much pain that he was feeling.

Rossi put his cup down on the coffee table next to him and got up out of the chair.

He approached Emily carefully.

When she turned slightly around to acknowledge him, he reached out and took the cup out of her hand, then put it on the mantle over the fire place. He placed a hand on her shoulder, which she rested her cheek on.

Rossi turned her body the rest of the way to face him, and enveloped her in a hug.

Emily's body relaxed against him to a point where she was even resting her head against Rossi's chest and her arms encircled his waist.

Rossi spoke quietly to her, "Em honey, you will never know how much I love you, nor will you realize how much I grieved for the loss of my daughter when you died." Emily looked up into Dave's eyes questioningly.

"Yes, I said that you are my daughter, in all ways possible." He answered her unspoken question.

Then he continued, "But I understand how you felt about losing the strength and stability of your parents, plus the family that the team has become to you."

Dave kissed her on the forehead and held her against him a couple more moments before releasing her from his grip.

Emily wiped away tears and started back across the room to sit down, but was stopped in her tracks by one voice and three words; "Emily, I'm sorry," Aaron spoke.

1 Inspired by the song: "Stand My Ground" by Within Temptation Album: The Silent Force


	7. Anger

**Chapter 7: Anger1**

Rossi watched her closely for a reaction, because she had frozen in place and closed her eyes for a second. She was letting Aaron's words sink in. Emily took a deep breath and forced her eyes open. The she took a few more steps before collapsing onto the couch.

Hotch walked over to where Emily sat on the couch and he sat down beside her. He reached over to her hands and took them in his own. Her eyes were on her lap, but she looked up when he touched her. Their eyes locked together.

Finally Aaron spoke, "I never dreamed that you would feel like you were being ripped away from us and abandoned. I never imagined what the consequences would be. Our soul purpose was to protect you from any further harm."

He stopped for a second, trying to read her expressions that were flitting across her face. Aaron also noticed that tears had started forming in her beautiful brown eyes.

Then everything he saw evaporated in a split second, the next thing he saw was Emily's armored mask slide into place. Emily looked back down to her lap before saying, "I understand the reasoning, but I have had a hard time dealing with the method."

"Aaron/ Dave, you have to remember that I have always loved you all so much and I had to try and protect you all from Doyle." Emily said. Hotch started to say something, Emily cut him off before he got started.

She continued, "Not just the team members either – I had to include: Jack, Jessica, Henry, Will, Kevin, my parents, Declan, my uncle, Sean, Strauss, Derek's sister's, mother and aunt, hell I even included your three ex-wives, Dave."

Emily said with a voice tinged with frustration and anger, "This is so much larger – as Morgan would say – than just me being in danger. Doyle would have wiped out the entire BAU to come after me, even if it meant destroying the FBI building in an apocalyptic strike. I couldn't and won't let that happen. My intentions were to draw him away from all of you and go head to head with him. Even though it probably looked like I was running away, I was actually trying to entice him to follow me someplace much more secluded. I can look back now and see that I failed to get him far enough away from your reach."

Em continued, "All I wanted was to come here to forgive, forget."

Then, looking into Aaron's eyes with total fury and blazing intensity she said, "I will end him one way or another, no matter the cost."

She reached over and cupped the side of Aaron's cheek, which he leaned into. "I have to tell you something though, just in case this goes badly for me."

She hesitated a little before saying softly, "Aaron, I have loved you like a friend and partner for all these years. I only have one regret, I wish we had had a little more time. I wish that our relationship could have developed into something much more intimate. Alas, since I'm being given this opportunity, I thought you should know since this will be our last time together."

Emily pulled her hand back and looked at Rossi, "Could you remind him once in a while, what I said and that I meant every last word?"

"Of course cara," Dave replied, "I will keep reminding him until you walk back through our doors for good."

Then Dave quickly added, "But don't you forget that we will always stand by you, if you need help call us – no matter the situation. Just don't become blinded by who or what you are fighting."

"Now, I think that I will leave you two alone for a couple of minute," he said with a smile.

Emily said to Dave as he was heading out of the room, "Down to the left off of the kitchen area are the facilities on the left."

Dave headed that way, but he his intuition told him to open the door on the right, which he thought might be a storage area. What he saw before him was staggering. There were all sorts of weaponry stacked from floor to the ceiling. Emily had accumulated everything imaginable for a combat situation. She had RPG's, flash bangs, grenades, Centex and every form of firearm and machine gun possible.

Rossi thought to himself, "Emily wasn't kidding about going after Doyle.

But he had inkling that there was something else going on, "This seems like a lot of stuff for just one person to handle by themselves, especially one who was still recovering from substantial injuries. There is enough equipment, in this room, to outfit a team of people. Could she possibly be working with someone again?"

Dave was now very concerned for Emily's safety, he was not sure that she would ever come back to them alive.

1 Inspired by the song: "Diamond Eyes" by Shinedown Album: Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom)


	8. A Truth Revealed

**Chapter 8: A truth finally revealed**

After Rossi walked away, it was Hotch who spoke first, "Emily look at me."

Emily turned back to look at him, her eyes piercing his heart and soul.

"I want" he started to say, but paused, and started over again, "I need you to come back from this to me. I need you in my life and Jack's. I never thought it possible for me to love someone again. But, I love you with every fiber in my body." Aaron said.

Emily looked at him in amazement and wonder. "

Aaron continued, "Em, from the point when JJ and I had to tell the team you hadn't gotten off that operating room table, they were devastated. I don't believe that you were ever aware of your impact on the BAU as a whole. How you affected each and every person around you. For example, look at Reid – you are part sister/mother to our young genius, to Derek you are his kick ass sister, to JJ you are her sister/confidant, you are Rossi's daughter that he never had before. Personally for me you are a friend, partner and soul mate, and for Jack you are a friend and a mother figure."

This time the tears rolled down Emily's face. She replied back to Hotch, "Aaron, each one of my friend's lost but a single person in this mess, but I have lost them all. I want to make it up to them, somehow, someday, but I have to push all those thoughts, dreams, and hopes away to be able to concentrate on what I intend to do to end this war. No distractions that could cost me dearly later. Can you understand this?"

Unfortunately Aaron understood the magnitude of her words, but he couldn't let her go without showing her just how much he loved her. So he stood and raised Emily to her feet. Then he leaned to her and kissed her sweet lips.

Emily felt him kiss her and felt the loving tenderness. Every bit of her resolve was threatening to collapse. She had to pull back or else, to withdraw from the kiss after a couple of moments. But, still hugged him like there was no tomorrow.

Rossi just watched the two with a little smirk on his face and thinking, "About damn time!"


	9. A Time to Move On

**Chapter 9: A time to move on1**

Dave slipped out the door to the beautiful wilderness outside. Dave noticed immediately that there were foot prints all around the cabin, but no one was out there. He was pondering this new information when a little while later, Emily and Hotch came out of cabin.

Emily walked up to Dave and gave him a kiss and a hug, telling him how much she was going to miss him.

Rossi wanted to tell her so much, but after looking at her, he realized that in actuality he couldn't say anything except that he loved her so much, and that he would be thinking of her often and miss her.

Then Emily turned to Hotch and did the same thing to him, but kissed him a little more passionately. Emily said, "You had better go now, we all have work to do and standing here isn't going to get anything done."

With determination she turned around and walked back into the cabin without even looking back.

Hotch and Rossi headed back to the SUV, as they stepped on to the side boards to get in, they both took one last look back at the cabin. Then they got in and turned the vehicle around and left the area in silence. Pulling back onto the highway they headed back to town to meet up with the rest of the team.

They reached town as the sun was starting to get low on the horizon. After parking the SUV in the parking lot, Dave and Hotch walked to the station. Along the way, they agreed that neither one of the two men would mention Emily again. They also agreed that the team needed to eat. So they entered the police station, gathered everyone together and told them that they were all going out to eat.

So the team went across the street to the local diner. Hotch picked a table away from the other patrons, so they could discuss the aspects of the case without disturbing others.

One fact that Reid mentioned to them was that there was no way one person could have done this all by themselves, so it had to be multiple subs.

JJ mentioned, "Some of the particulars of the autopsies had come in, which indicated that the victims were all held somewhere else, because traces of hay were found on some of the clothes."

"Another strange item, that was found, was that none of the victims had any type of hypothermia, which indicated that they were kept somewhere warm prior to death," Morgan stated.

The Canadian Mounties also came up with a hit on the type of tire used to make the impression I the snow out at the dump site. The only problem was that type of tire tread was common up her in Canada. They were going to have to go through a lot of records.

Garcia was helping them out with that information.

Morgan asked if anything else had come out of the trip in the field, but Hotch and Rossi both said that there wasn't much else out there. Except people had a very solitary life style and the exceptional beauty of the mountains.

After dinner, the team went back to the station to work a few more hours before turning in for the night.

Hotch had told them that he wanted to meet back here first thing in the morning to go back over the evidence. Then head out afterwards to help the Mounties with the search of the surrounding area of the dump site.

Reid would set about to tackle the geographic area that had the highest probability of activity.

1 Inspired by the song: "Together Again" by: Evanescence: Album: Together Again


	10. A Puzzling Juncture in the Case

**Chapter 10: A puzzling juncture in the case**

Early the next morning at the station, the BAU team was pouring over all the evidence with the local Leos' and Canadian Mounties, when one of the younger members of the Mounties came hurriedly ran up to the them and told them a lead had come in and that they were going to check it out.

The BAU team all got into the SUV's and followed the authorities. It was a familiar ride for Hotch and Rossi. They were heading to the area around Emily's mountain hideaway.

They all poured out of the vehicles when they came to a halt. As they rushed up to the lead Mounty, he told them that they had found a couple of unsubs bound to trees, with big red bows on their heads.

The unsubs were singing like canaries after being cut down from the trees – confessing to the kidnappings, torturing and killing of all those people. They also told the authorities where to find the rest of the victims.

They were telling everyone that a group of men ambushed them, threatened them and tied the bad guys up to the trees. But they could not give a description of the team who found them over at the barn.

The teams were stunned by the turn of events. Who had scared the life out of those men enough that they were cooperating with the authorities.

Part of the team headed to a property, not far from the dump site, where they found a home with a barn. As the teams raided the barn, they found four more people, who were in various stages of torment, but right where the men had described to them. Everyone was rescued safely.

Everyone was regrouping since the Mounties were almost finished up loading the victims into the ambulance and the others into police cars.

The BAU and the commanders of the Royal Canadian Mounties were just standing around talking trying to figure out what had happened and who this other group was that had "helped."

They sound like a Para-military group of some sort. Well equipped, organized and efficient for sure. No one knew of any group like that in the area. They were just getting ready to discuss how to handle this turn of events.

When all of a sudden, there was a flash of light and tremendous explosion (the flash from the blast was momentarily blinding.)

The whole group snapped their heads around at the sound.

The blast was deafening,

Someone, somewhere yelled, "Get down!"


	11. A New Development

**Chapter 11: A new development1**

As they watched, it was like it was all happening in slow motion. A fireball rose thousands of feet into the sky like a mushroom cloud.

Down at the base, the trees bent almost in half inwards as a wave of dirt and debris was sucked in then shot outwards with colossal force. Flames, dust and debris was thrown everywhere in a pyroclastic explosion. The force of the blast was enough to blow trees apart like match sticks. In the case of the epicenter, everything was vaporized. A lahar was unleashed by the rapid melting of the snow from the higher elevations. The entire top of the mountain was blown off just like a volcanic eruption. There was a staggering amount of damage. Anything up there was just leveled. The team actually felt the concussion wave as it over took their positions rapidly. The heat was incredible.

The rescue parties, Royal Canadian Mounties and the BAU were all assailed by pieces of trees, dirt, rocks and ash.

Reid, JJ and several others were blown off their feet by the blast wave. Some of the vehicles were rolled over on the sides.

The ground shook so violently that anyone else trying to stand up had a hard time staying upright. Everyone couldn't believe what they were witnessing – it looked like the apocalypse.

The Mounties called for the fire services, along with calling in the rest of the disaster teams, and the military that were going to be needed.

The fire brigades could be heard in the distance, screaming as they got closer.

As Morgan checked to make sure JJ and Reid weren't hurt in anyway, then he helped them off the ground. They were all covered in ash, dirt, and grime. He took them over to the back of the SUV, where they had all their medical supplies. He found that they had bruises, lacerations and JJ had a sprained wrist, but that was the extent of their injuries.

Rossi walked up besides Hotch and whispered, "She wasn't there when it happened, you are going to have to believe that, you know."

Hotch remarked back to Dave in anguish, "Yeah, I know." Rossi put his hand on the younger man's shoulder.

After a couple of minutes of looking at the total devastation of the mountain, Hotch turned back to the team, "Is everyone all right?" When everyone said that they weren't hurt to bad, Hotch walked over to the other authorities to speak to them. After shaking hands, he returned back to the small group.

Hotch old the team, "Our work here is done, the Royal Canadian Mounties have jurisdiction on this one and they will call us back if we are needed to help with this new development. So right now, let's go home.

Reid, JJ, and Morgan looked at Hotch and Rossi in disbelief. But to their credit, they didn't say anything though. The team all loaded up in the SUV and left for the hotel, to grab shower and collect their bags.

Garcia called Morgan on the way back to town in panic because she had heard about the explosion. It took him most of the ride back to town to soothe her, but she finally managed to calm down once she knew that they were on their way home.

After getting cleaned up and getting their bags and equipment they headed to the airport to catch their jet home.

The pilots had heard, of course from Garcia and Strauss who was in the lair back in Quantico, what had happened, so when Hotch called to have them prepare for immediate departure they were relieved.

The pilot and co-pilot met the team on the tarmac, when they arrived, in case they needed help getting anyone on board. Hotch noticed the care in the men's actions towards the team and how he appreciated it.

Once the plane was ready, the pilot with out delay put that part of Canada in their rear vision mirror quickly, so to speak. After achieving their cruising altitude rather quickly, the pilot went back to check on his charges. The pilot could tell when they arrived at the airport, that the team was quite shaken and exhausted after the ordeal. After boarding the plane and getting comfortable either in the chairs, the couch, or the floor of the plane, everyone had fallen asleep immediately.

Only Rossi and Hotch were still awake, for the moment. They saw the pilot come in to the cabin. They smiled at the older man and shook his hand. They thanked him for getting them out of there so quickly. Before he went back up front, the pilot told them both that they should get some rest. Aaron and Dave agreed that they would do in a few minutes.

After looking back over at the team, the men shared a look of knowing that they were lucky no one else had gotten hurt.

They both went back to working on the reports, which they knew Strauss would demand of them once they arrived back in DC.

1 Inspired by the song: "The Tempest" by: Armory Album: The Dawn of Enlightenment


	12. The War Begins

**Chapter 12: The War Begins**

Kurt touched Emily's shoulder to let her know that the plane was on its final approach to land at a non-descript runway deep in Germany. Emily asked in perfect German, "Is everything ready?" Kurt nodded to her with a ghost of a smile playing on his face.

The plane rolled up to a huge hanger and stopped. It was met by a moving van type truck with about a dozen men in it. They quickly off loaded the cargo, with the help of the other men from Emily's plane, into the awaiting truck.

Three SUV's pulled up and four more men got out of the first vehicle and started scanning the area with night goggles, they were armed with automatic machine guns. They were waiting for Kurt and Daven to come out first, and then Emily was to debark from the plane after them.

After the truck was loaded, Emily was escorted to her vehicle and loaded in the backseat of the second SUV. The rest of the men got back into their vehicles. They traveled for quite a while, until they were deep within the Black Forest.

Along the ride, Daven informed Emily that they had found the perfect location to run the operations in Europe. He also let he know that she would love it. It was spacious, out of the way, heavily fortified, and easily defendable.

After a turn off the main road they approached a building, and it was then that Emily noticed that the headquarters was a lovely chalet sunk in one of many valleys of the forested mountains. Her SUV and escorts stopped in the front, but the cargo van and its escorts continued around to the back of the chalet for unloading.

Emily was escorted by Daven on her left and Kurt on her right hand side, through the chalet. The main bulk of the chalet was fully furnished and in lovely order, Emily noticed as she walked through the building.

There was a set of sandbagged placement of machine guns on either side of the hallway they walked along. They approached a set of double doors which were protected by two sets of armed guards. One set of guards opened the doors for them as they walked through, while the others held their weapons ready. Emily had never felt this secure anywhere before.

The main room had been converted to what she thought to herself as a war room, with every entrance covered by heavily armed guards inside. There was a raised platform, with a chair in the center, where she was escorted to with her guards. There was a wall of computers set up on her right that would have made even Garcia drool. A large map of the world dominated the room in front of her. Large television screens with data streaming on them with various reports on Doyle, his men, their location, assets, strengths, possible weakness, "and what the size label said on his underwear,' Emily chuckled at that thought , were hanging from the walls .Then to Emily's left was the communications section. Behind her chair was an exceptionally large conference room, with conferencing capabilities.

People started coming up to Emily to take her white winter parka, or to offer her refreshment or something after the plane trip over.

Then another person had a wireless headset for her, so she could hear everything that was going.

Once she was settled with the various things that Daven and Kurt were explaining to her, they informed her that she would met with various members of her old and new teams, to be brought up to speed.

Emily thought to herself, "Time for patience, planning, and preparation. This trap was going to be sprung with precision."

Emily smiled as she sat back in her swiveling chair and looked at the operation around her and thought, "Oh, things are going to be so different this time."


	13. Searching for Answers

**Chapter 13: Searching for answers**

The Federal Bureau of Investigations Gulfstream jet carrying the BAU's Team 1 landed back at Langley, their black SUV's were staged for them. The trip back to Quantico was uneventful. Everyone unloaded their gear and headed upstairs

Garcia was waiting for them as they came out of the elevator. She gave them each a hug was they greeted her.

Rossi and Hotch headed to their offices and the rest went to the bullpen.

The team stowed their go bags and started writing up their reports. But similar questions were starting to pop up with everyone in the group. Like, "Who caught the unsubs? What or who had scared the unsubs into confessing? But most importantly, what had caused that explosion? Also, why had they left so fast, without even staying around to help find the cause of the explosion? Was all this connected some how?"

Garcia had them explain how the whole thing unfolded up through the explosion. After the explanation and a look of determination, Garcia headed back to her lair to see if she could find anything.

Strauss came over to Hotch's office and insisted that the entire team needed to knock off for the day early. Then come back in when they had rested up for the evening.

The next morning everyone came in started earily.

Most of the group was finishing up their files when Reid, JJ, and Morgan received a text from Garcia to come to the bat cave. Once they got down there they were greeted by an excited Technical Analyst, "Come in my pretties."

"You are not going to believe what I found," she directed their attention to one of the screens in front of her.

"The first picture is a satellite view of the mountain, with the beautiful view and a cabin sitting there. On the second screen was the same picture, except for the black spot in the center. If you look close enough, you will notice that everything was vaporized. There is nothing left, erased off the face of the Earth," Garcia explained.

It was JJ who asked the first question, "How hot would that explosion have to be to vaporize everything like it did? "Was it nuclear?"

Reid answered back, "eight hundred to one thousand degrees – just like a pyroclastic surge or a small thermonuclear explosion." "But, I think we can rule out both," he concluded.

Garcia spoke up and informed them that the Atomic Energy Detection System Atomic Energy Detection System Atomic Energy Detection System never registered an explosion anywhere on Earth. But, the USGS did pick it up on their seismic equipment.

Morgan had a thought, "Baby girl, could you take the pictures backwards and see what was going on just before the explosion?"

"My chocolate god of thunder," Garcia said as her hands started flying over the keyboards again, "That is an excellent idea."

It took several seconds, and then they had the images from a couple of hours before the explosion. There was a lot of activity up on that mountain.

There were several non-descript military trucks being loaded. Whatever was in the cabin was being moved in large green containers.

The men all had on black outfits with masks, no way to id them, because they didn't have an insignia, number, letter, or symbol anywhere. Even the license plates were unreadable.

Reid asked, "Is there anyway you can get a close up of the three people by the SUV near the tree line?"

"Sure thing Wonder Boy," Garcia answered, "What are you thinking?"

"Well, they seem to be supervising. If you notice, the one in the middle is dressed completely different from the rest," Reid observed.

Morgan made another observation, that the person was dressed in an all white ski outfit with a hard mask, which completely covered their face. Their height was something that caught Morgan's attention. Even though the one in white was almost as tall as the other two, there was still a good two to three inch difference.

"Looking at the figures," Morgan spoke up, "That has to be the leader. See how the others are flanking the person in white?"

On a closer look JJ spoke up, "The person in the middle has a pair of handguns strapped to each thigh and a SIG 551 over the shoulder." She also commented on the fact that, "The men were wearing military issue black cold weather gear, with masks and they were heavily armed also."

Reid had Garcia zoom in a little closer to the men with the white clothed leader, look at that Reid said, "The person on the left has a metal briefcase handcuffed to his wrist. It looks like it is large enough to house a computer."

The BAU team noticed that the three of them walked over to the SUV and put the briefcase on the hood. The leader pulled out a key and opened up the briefcase. Then they watched as a couple of other black clad men walked over to the back of the SUV and opened up the doors. They seemed to be pulling something out. A stainless steel container was placed on the ground and the men closed the back of the SUV, then picked up the container and placed it in the middle of the open area on the mountain top. It wasn't until they were out in the open did the agents watching the video feed recognize that the men were carrying a device of some sort.

It was then that Morgan put the pieces together, that the person in white was getting ready to arm the bomb from the suitcase that was on the hood of the SUV's hood. The man that had the metal case strapped to his wrist was the one who was typing on the computer.

JJ made a comment that the other men were getting into the remaining trucks and were leaving. The only ones left were the three by the SUV and four others that looked like a protection detail. The third man locked the briefcase back on the other mans wrist.

The people moved to get into the waiting SUV. The one man opened the back door for the mystery person in white and then closed the door before getting behind the wheel. The guards also got into a separate vehicle that had been hidden from view by the tree. The two vehicles pulled out and headed down the mountain. They turned onto the main road and drove right past the where the BAU team had been at the scene of the murders.

Then all of the sudden the video feed went all white for a second as the bomb detonated.

The agents all stared in disbelief as the feed came back up and there was nothing left of the peak that they had been looking at. The blast had been a lot larger than they expected. There was a huge crater on the top of the mountain. Trees looked like they had been laid out like dominos for miles around. There was absolutely nothing left of the lodge.

No one was to speak for several minutes, as each one of them tried to comprehend what they had just witnessed. Had they seen a dry run for a terrorist group, if so they had no way of tracing them, and no idea who those people were.

Garcia spoke up with fear in her voice, "Shouldn't we get Hotch and Rossi in here to see this?"

Reid and JJ looked at each other, silently shaking their heads in agreement.

Just as Morgan was getting ready to tell Garcia to send the other two men a message something happened that took everyone by surprise. Alarms went off on all of Garcia's computers. Her babies were being attacked.


	14. Hitting a Brick Wall

**Chapter 14: Hitting a brick wall**

"Oh, no you don't," Garcia yelled at them.

Grabbing her keyboard, she was in the fight of her life to bring her computers, which were running on their own at blazing speed, back under her command.

Her fingers were flying over the keyboard at lightning fast speed.

She yelled at Reid to find Kevin and get him in there to help now.

Beads of sweat were already forming on Garcia's upper lip, when Kevin arrived barreling into the lair at top speed.

"Whoa," he said as he was looking from Garcia to her computer screens.

"What the hell's going on?" he asked looking at the others in the room.

"Shut up, sit down and help!" Garcia hollered at him.

Kevin ran to the other computer terminal, sat down then started typing fast and furiously.

To JJ, Morgan and Reid it looked like gibberish as Garcia sent out commands into her version of a battle.

"Take this and that," Garcia muttered to them, "Follow me now, my pretties."

JJ spoke to Reid and Morgan softly, "I think now would be a great time to get Hotch and Rossi in here."

Morgan took off running, without saying a word.

The others just watched as the different computer screens all flying at different speeds were trying to ward off a cyber attack.

One screen was trying to find the source; another was downloading all the information that was flashing across it, recording the entire conversations going on.

It seemed like Garcia and Kevin were getting the upper hand, closing off channels as soon as a new one opened up. "You don't know who you're dealing with," growled Garcia.

Little did Garcia know who was at the other end of this battle for supremacy.


	15. Operation Phantom

**Chapter 15: Operation Phantom**

Half a world away, the command had been passed down to commence Operation Phantom.

The men and women knew how to do this in their sleep. Each one of members of the elite computer squad knew that their reputations were on the line. They had to prove themselves to "Her."

Operation Phantom was in itself, was rather complicated, but truly a computer hackers work of art.

There were six computer geniuses programming their own individual assignments. It looked like a single attack on a network hub, but in actuality it was aimed to do six tasks at once.

Each person had been assigned to find and deal with any information that could possibly implicate the current overall objective of their whole teams' assignment.

Find all information dealing with the blast in Canada, all information on Ian Doyle, the names and locations of possible moles who were monitoring different agencies around the world, general information on any contacts about gun dealers, etc.

As each person worked on their assignment, Kurt gave their leader regular updates as the information flowed back to them. They also followed all of the progress of the other computer tech's counter maneuvers.

Once Kurt acknowledged all six assignment parameters were fulfilled, the computer geniuses looked to their main leader for further direction.

What had been weeks of precise planning, Emily's second in command Kurt looked at her and nodded signally the completion on Phase One.

What Phase Two was going to do to Garcia and them, Emily could only imagine. But, she had to go through with it. Because her friend was the only one on the planet who could possibly make a mess of her plans for Doyle.

How every bit of planning was coming down to this crucial command.

With another look at the screens and the hackers, she looked over at Kurt and nodded her head.

Kurt looked over at his computer team and gave the simple command of, "Break."

To Emily, from what had been explained to her, was that it was going to be like six fighter jets flying at such closeness that they would give a signature of one aircraft. Then when Kurt told the computer team to break, then all six planes would give off their own individual signature. Thus a six prong attack on every computer that they had been spying on.

The Phase Two of Operation Phantom also involved another element. Once the hackers started their attacks on computers everywhere another set of six computer geeks were waiting for Phase Two to begin.

Emily gave a second nod of her head to Kurt and he spoke to the others, "Team Two go to Phase Two."

This part of the plan was just as delicate as the first. Team Two's assignment was to alert teams that were prepositioning themselves for an all out attack on the current known associates of Doyle. That was why Emily had brought more hardware from Canada with her, which the teams in the field needed.

Daven walked up to Emily and gave her a friendly smile as they watched the operation. "You know this is going to take a while, why don't you go, freshen up and lie down for a while," he said looking into Emily's dark eyes.

Her face and eyes expressed the exhaustion that her body was trying to fight off.

Emily smiled at Daven and Kurt as they looked concerned at her.

"I will once the Intel is recovered and I know everyone has been notified about the details of our plan. Thank you both for your concern though." She replied back to both of the men. She watched as they both nodded and went back to their tasks.

Emily could not even imagine how lucky she was to have a group of men like them at her disposal for this operation.

When one of the tech's said, "Sir, I think I found something," that brought Emily out of her haze of thinking.

Kurt and Daven walked over and read the print out together and glanced at one another before turning around to face Emily to give her the news. "Looks like we've found the moles at Langley and Quantico, Interpol, State, and DOD," Kurt said dryly. "Do you want us to shut them down?" he asked.

"No, I think we will just monitor them," Emily replied, "Good work though; I always knew something was amiss."

"Yes ma'am. Tag and Bag them. We will deal with them personally," Replied Kurt.

"Gentlemen, if you now will excuse me, I think there is a bed around here with my name on it I hope." said Emily.

They watched as Emily walked out of the room flanked by her bodyguards. Both in deep thought about the woman that just left their presence. "Well," Daven stated, "I think she's pleased.

"Yeah," replied Kurt. "Once she gets some rest, then we will bring her up to speed on all outstanding matters."

Every one of the computer programmers had heard her compliment and was smiling as they continued with their work.

Meanwhile, a half planet away in Quantico Virginia, Garcia was being hard pressed to keep up with the fight over the computer system. Beads of sweat were on the brows of both computer wizards.

JJ, Morgan and Reid along with Hotch and Rossi were trying to figure out what was going on when Garcia, all of a sudden said an explicative word.

"That can't be good," thought Derek.

"Baby girl, what's going on? Derek asked her quietly.

"It looks like this got a lot harder," replied Kevin.

"My chocolate God, we are being hacked in a cyber attacked and it looks like we aren't the only ones," answered Garcia without looking at them.

"This looks like an all out assault on every Federal Agency – FBI, CIA, Homeland, DoD, State, you name it an it's getting hit."

"Can't you stop it Garcia?"Asked Reid.

"Wish we could, Boy Wonder, all our safeties are being overwritten." Garcia said.

Then without warning, all of the computers came up with static on them.

Garcia and Kevin stared at the monitors, then at each other.

"Did you do that, I don't think I did," asked Kevin to Garcia.

"No" Garcia said as she frantically hit any key to get the computers back up.

Within about five minutes of snow on the screens, Hotch and Rossi demanded to know what happened.

"All major computers within the United States just got attacked. We couldn't stop it," Garcia said looking at Hotch in desperation.

"We've never seen anything like it before." Kevin told Hotch and Rossi.

Hotch and Rossi joined the rest of the team over in the corner of the room.

JJ looked at Hotch, "they have been trying everything they could think of to stop this."

"One minute the computers were fine, and then the attack hit, now the snow on the screens." Derek reported.

"Holy Crap Batman," Kevin said as they watched in amazement.

After fifteen minutes of nothing on the screens, then they all switched back on with the message "Thank you for letting us serve you today. Have a Great Day!"

The bad part was they couldn't control them again. The team watched the tech's fought furiously, but the systems started to shut down and reboot it one by one.

Then like nothing happened, the systems were now back under control.

"Start running my diagnostic and security measures to see what they got into," Garcia told Kevin.

"Garcia, anything?" asked Rossi.

Almost in tears, Garcia replied to Dave, "No, nothing. It's going to take us a while to go through everything."

"Alright, let us know, as soon as you can," replied Hotch.

Looking at Dave he said, "We need to get a hold of everyone we know in all the agencies and see what they have come up with."

The team left Garcia and Kevin alone, heading back to the chaos of the bullpen and the phones.

Several hours later a bedraggled Garcia finally emerged in the bullpen and headed up to Hotch's office. After a couple of minutes they both came out and Hotch called the team into the conference room.

Garcia sat down and said, "It was a total cyber attack from outside the country. We can't pinpoint the exact location because this wasn't just an attack on the US. It was a hit to all government agencies around the globe, from NY to Moscow, Asia, everywhere."

"Who could pull something off like this?" asked Hotch.

"Good question, everyone wants that question answered. We've been in contact with MI5, Interpol, NATO, all government agencies and none of us can figure out what they were after," Garcia said tiredly.

Everyone was quiet a while, they were digesting then news.


	16. Down Time

**Chapter 16: Down time**

Since the cyber attack, the BAU had several cases come up that kept them out of town and too busy to think about what had been going on since then.

It wasn't until the jet had landed as they headed back to Quantico that they were informed by Strauss that they were being ordered off of rotation for several days of rest. Teams two and three were going to cover their work. After turning in the last of the paperwork, the entire group walked out together silently. The other teams just watched them leave; they all knew how hard Team One worked and how much that had cost them this past year. They all said a silent prayer for them.

Jessica had Jack ready for Aaron to pick up after his call. But when he arrived, Jess was slightly taken aback by his appearance with the dark circles under Aaron's eyes and his whole demeanor was somehow different. Lately his job had taken it toll on him since Emily's death, Jess thought to herself. She hadn't seen him like this since Haley's death.

"Aaron, are you all right? Do you need to talk or anything?" she asked, not really expecting him to take up the offer.

"Thanks Jess. I'm fine, just tired. We've had all these back to back cases and everything else going on." He replied.

"I just need a little Jack time to boost the energy levels." Hotch said giving a little smile.

Jessica knew how much the boy's time seemed to help Hotch out after a hard time at work. She only hoped that it would do the trick this time. The boys said their goodbyes and headed back to their apartment.

JJ walked in to be attacked by Henry. Will could tell by the extra long hug and kisses that JJ was handing out to him things were not going well with the team. To him, she looked tired and strung out.

"Cherie, you want something to eat or drink?" he offered. As JJ sat on the floor with Henry, she just looked at Will and simply shook her head no. But she offered a small smile, to him, as thanks for asking. Will knew that it would take a couple of days before she would open up. He wasn't going to push right now. He was just glad she was home.

Rossi walked into his home and noticed that his housekeeper had left him a fresh go bag in the front hall. His dog Mudgie was more than excited to see her master. After putting his stuff down, he decided a walk through the woods would help him relax enough before he started to cook some supper. Later that evening, he decided that a scotch in front of the fireplace and some music was just what the doctor ordered. He sat there for the rest of the night, staring at the flames in the fireplace and sipping the scotch, lost in mulling over the events of the last few weeks.

Reid made it home and after eating a bite he sat in his favorite chair and picked up some letter head. He decided to purge his soul to his mother, by writing to her. Reid knew his mother would understand his rambling and his reasons for writing. The demons that he carried now had to be put to rest. So he took a deep breath and set about his task.

Garcia had just survived one of the worst weeks in her career at the BAU. Strauss had ordered the Team off for a few days of rest, but since the cyber attack, she had been working around the clock. Since Garcia worked closely with Kevin, Strauss had ordered that Kevin could watch the computers for a few days, so she could get some rest too. This didn't set well with the computer tech, but after some protesting she finally gave in after a look from Hotch. So she headed home to play online video games, you know something relaxing, but this is the way she works.

Derek decided to stop off at his favorite gym on the way home. He needed a work out from hell to help him unwind. After lifting weights, a few rounds with a sparring bag, dumb bells and a few lapses around the pool, he decided to get something to eat and head home. Then he remembered an envelope that Rossi had slipped him as they walked out together. He opened his go bag, pulled out the letter, and sat down to read it.

Once he unfolded the letter, he was astonished when he saw who it was from, but he continued to read it.

_**My dearest Derek, **_

_**I can sit here all evening and try and explain why I did what I did. But, what is that going to accomplish; especially when you are not going attempt to listen to me anyways. You have these preconceived notions of what I did, and why. But in actuality, you know nothing.**_

_**I was young and fresh out of the Academy, working for the Bureau in Chicago, when I was approached. The CIA handler told me, that they were going to be working with Interpol and other agencies to assemble a small team for a joint task force, to go after an Irish international arms dealer. As you know now, Ian Doyle had connections to a fanatical faction of the IRA, which they were trying to infiltrate. They needed someone who fit his type (woman in her mid twenties, dark haired, excellent physical condition, strong, dominate, an equal in all accounts) to pose as another arms dealer to get close to Ian and his associates.**_

_**I am going to pause here and explain something to you, because you may not be aware of the difference between being under cover opposed to infiltration tactics. When a woman goes undercover, you get dressed for the part, know that there is back up if needed, arrest the bad guy and go home that evening. When you take part in a deep infiltration, then the story is different. You are given the assignment, and become the person that your target is expecting. Why you ask, because your life depends on it. **_

_**Now male operatives have it a little easier, because they are … well … men. Female operatives have another whole set of issues to deal with while under cover. One factor is you may be with a person for an extended amount of time. Weeks and months run together after a while. Also, there seems to be the opinion that women are supposed to act and behave a certain way around men, you know the one I mean that's has been around since the caveman days - me man, you woman. You will cook, clean, birth babies, stroke the ego, and be at my beck and call, type mentality. **_

_**The longer you are undercover the harder it becomes to define you and your alternate persona, lines can become blurred. If you are in too deep, there is the real danger that you could never go back to the person you were before. If you end up in a physical or mentally abusive situation, the psychological anguish could become so over bearing that you break. The emotional scars you come back with, can also be so vast, that they could fester for years to come. If your circumstances turn grave, well … only you will know your own pain, torment and death. Yet sadly, there is also the small aspect that there is no one to care one way or another. You were hired to do the job because you had no relationships, no family, and no friends and most importantly you are disposable. **_

_**For example: Do you remember when Hankle had Reid and was torturing him? Or when I was in that compound and got beaten? I put those experiences in little boxes and filed them. That kind of compartmentalizing came from all those months when I was with Ian. I tried desperately to ensure that I did not slip up and let my alter ego, Lauren Reynolds, take hold of me forever. It would have been so easy, to accept that life style and the family that he wanted for us then. **_

_**So do not judge me now Derek for all that I have done, you still may not know the full story yet. You may call it running away from the situation, but I don't. A good operative will move a fight away from innocents that may get caught up in the crossfire. I also hope someday you might be a little more open minded about people and not judge them so fast or as harshly. What is that saying about not casting stones when you live in a glass house? You are not perfect either. We all have our faults that we have to live with.**_

_**Up until I left, you have seen me as I truly am. I have been truthful, honest, and open with you. The BAU has become the family that I never really had before. Yes, my mother the Ambassador wasn't the most perfect mom to have, but she knew how to handle her job to perfection. She and I just never seemed to get close because of it. **_

_**Looking back now - if it weren't for the team, well let's just say, that my acclamation back into society would not have gone as smoothly as it did. Yes, I knew that I had to work very hard to gain everyone trust when I first started working in the BAU, and I knew about the rumors concerning how I got the job in the first place. Hell I even knew that Hotch never trusted me, up until the day I resigned because I wouldn't be Strauss's snitch. But, that didn't really matter to me. I just wanted to be a part of something truly good. To a part of a Super Hero team, that caught the bad guys, as Jack would say. **_

_**Then in one short miserable day, I get all that stripped away from me again. Ian Doyle returns to my life and now I feel like I will lose everything that I believe in. This time I realize that there won't be any returning to my old life - this maybe the turning point in my life that I cannot escape from. **_

_**My family is threatened. I must persuade Ian to follow me. Derek, please forgive me for what I am getting ready to do. I know you won't understand, but have a little shred of faith in me… With my dying breath, I swear I will protect the ones I love, honor, cherish and admire so much. Until we meet again big brother…**_

_**Emily**_

All Derek could do was let the hot tears cascade down his face and stare at the letter. God he felt like crap.


	17. The Big Meeting

**Chapter 17: The big meeting**

The team had all unconsciously started to work early following their time off. They had to catch up on files and cases that needed reviewing. When Strauss came walking into the Bullpen, she wasn't all that surprised to see her most infamous team already working in silence. She just stood there and watched them in for a moment, with a little smile on her usually stern face. Erin had to admit that she had never worked with a team that meshed so smoothly together. As she proceeded up to the cat walk and the profilers just glanced up and acknowledged her with a simple head nod or little smile. But she was stunned by some of the other emotions that she could clearly see in each one of their faces or eyes things like fatigue, sorrow, despair and loss. This team was truly haunted by what they had been through in the last several months. "How much longer could they keep it all together?" Strauss wondered.

As Erin reached Hotchners' office, she knocked on the door frame quietly, so as not to startle the occupant. Hotch looked up from the file long enough to see who was standing there and was a little surprised that it was the Unit Chief. Usually she would barge in without knocking first, but something must be up if she came by quietly.

They spoke together for several minutes then they walked out and Hotch told the team to get the others.

Strauss and Hotch waited for the team to assemble at the elevator. The entire team had been invited to a meeting. As they piled into an elevator near Strauss's office, Hotch explained to them the rules for being allowed into this high level meeting.

"Please sit behind us against the wall. Do not say a word during the meeting. Absorb everything around you, and do not give any hint of emotion at anything that is said or shown. It is very unusual for anyone, as low on the food chain as we are, to be allowed into this type of meeting. Most of the people in there have top secret clearance or higher." Hotch explained to them.

Everyone noticed that the ride down to the lower floors took a little longer than normal, which meant that they were all underground now. The doors of the elevator opened to a reception area. They all stepped out and followed Hotch and Strauss past a set of double doors, flanked by military guards. The room was a huge conference room in the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) and Strauss moved to go around the room towards the back where she took a seat with Hotch next to her. The team did as they were asked and took their seats behind their bosses.

Other groups started to file in behind them; they all recognized the others from CIA, DOD, Secret Service, the State Department, Homeland, FEMA, and a host of other agencies. The surprising thing was that large viewing screens were dropping down from the ceiling, across from the BAU team, with the symbols of Scotland Yard, MI5, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Interpol, German Bundespolizei, Israeli Yasam, Russian Spetsnaz, National Gendarmerie, Australian Federal Police and other organizations from around the globe on split screens. This was going to be an interesting meeting for sure.

Everyone was seated, the doors closed, the teleconferencing connections to the other organizations came up, the only odd ball was one that had half a screen with no symbol. The person, at that site, took his seat and spoke, "Please turn on your devices, as they will not interfere with our connections."

With that the Director of the CIA turned on theirs in the room.

"Now let us begin, we have a lot to discuss in a short time." The mystery man said.

"Let me begin by saying that it is an honor to be working and speaking with such an elite group of people and organizations as you all are. My name is Kurt, I am in command of the World Operations of this Task Force and I am going to get down to business rather quickly." He nodded to someone else with there back to the screen.

The other person spoke, but their voice was distorted as like with a computer voice, "My code name is Phantom, I'm third in command of the World Operations of this Task Force and Commander of the Forces in the Northern Europe Theater of Operations. As you all know, there has been a Multi National Official Secrets Agreement drawn up. We will be presenting that treaty for your viewing, now."

With that the doors to the conference room opened up and two blonde, very tall armed guards walked in and stationed themselves at the doors. They were followed by a tall, thin, dark headed, older woman and a 6' 8" tall really good looking, well built blonde young man. Then two more guards followed them and stood in the doorway. Everyone in the room was shocked at who had joined them.

The blonde man introduced himself to the room as he handed out the contract to each agency, "My name is Daven, and I am second in command of the World Operations of the Task Force. May I introduce to you **our** liaison to the governing bodies represented by all the agencies involved with this Task Force, retired United States Ambassador Mrs. Elizabeth Prentiss."

The BAU look at each other with stunned expression. Even the usually unflappable Strauss looked surprised.

Ambassador Prentiss spoke with the usual cold calculating determination of a typical diplomat. But the look in her eyes and face, spoke volumes to anyone who knew her at all. The Ambassador looked relaxed with her shoulders squared, but her eyes were dark pools of unknown emotions. Hotch couldn't quite tell what he could read in her eyes. Her lips were thin lines, but held a small smile for anyone who could meet her gaze. Hotch stole a gaze at Rossi who was wearing a frown on his face, as he was trying to read the Ambassador's body language too. Something had definitely changed in her from the last time they had met. One thing for sure, this meeting took on a whole new meaning with her present and everyone involved knew it.

"I have been in personal contact with the world leaders from each of the governments represented here today. All have signed off on the terms and conditions set forth within this Multi National Official Secrets Agreement. The governments have also agreed to give **us** sole authority on all matters and decisions concerning the upcoming operation." She said with conviction and determination.

The Ambassador hesitated for a moment and looked around the room, searching out certain peoples' eyes like Strauss, before continuing. "The Task Force has also been granted immunity from prosecution following the operation."

Daven stepped forward and spoke, "There are three other notes to add:

**Everyone** in this room has cleared the background checks and has been granted classified access to the information that we are presenting here today.

Ambassador Prentiss's personal safety and security detail has now been placed under the sole jurisdiction of the Task Force.

Certain other members of this coalition will also be approached and informed that they will be provided with additional security, provided by the Task Force also."

With that Daven looked to the others, and then nodded back to the screen where Kurt was watching silently. Then the Ambassador and Daven turned around and walked out with their escorts, closing the doors behind them.

Strauss and Hotch shared a startled look at this last bit of information, but this look was not missed by the rest of the team.

Kurt spoke up and said, "We are a counter terrorist unit. Our objective will be to clean our house. I realize this really doesn't sound like anything new to most of you but, we have come across some interesting information." "Please pick up the tablets in front of you." At that moment all the computer tablets lit up with each group's symbol on the screen, and then it went to a main page.

"You will find documents, pictures, files, names, aliases, codes and personal records for all known moles and double agents in our midst in each and every one of your organizations and their corresponding affiliations. These people are on our most wanted list."

"In 72 hours from our mark, it will be up to our Task Force to collect up these people, with support provided by each of your organizations, but understand that deadly force will be authorized if necessary. At approximately the identical time, that you are doing this, we will set into motion an operation that hit _every_ know terrorist or drug organization in the world at one time, to strike at them a swift but deadly blow." Kurt said, and then let the others let digest what they had just learned.

The Director for the FBI spoke up finally, "Kurt, we have been advised to cooperate with this but, what about the plan, do we need to organize teams for these operations. 72 hours isn't much time to work with here. What about casualties?"

Kurt smiled at the person in front of him and said, "Director, we have teams all ready in place across the globe with their assignments. These assignments were established right after the computer assault on all of your computer systems. All of our targets were identified and tagged. We were the ones who hacked all of you."

That information sent angry mumblings across the rooms.

"We set a president at how we were able to achieve that feat. After this is all over with, all of our information will be shared equally with everyone, so that each of you can make appropriate changes and upgrades." Kurt said.

"But in the mean time," the person with the computer enhanced voice replied, "No director, we will minimize all causalities to the public. There was a test of our resilience, in a remote area of Canada recently; we will not back down, no matter the outcome."

"In the 48 hours following this meeting, all of our transmissions with our teams will cease as they prepare. The last 24 hours before the campaign begins is when we will send to you all the information needed."

"We only need to move a couple of assets and we will be ready. This Director is where we need to ask a favor of the FBI though. We will be in need of the Behavioral Analysis Unit, for a mission. Let's call it a consulting job," Said the voiceless person. "They will be kept out of the line of fire, and harm's way at all cost," the voice said.

"Now, I will let everyone think about our proposal for 30 minutes, as a break and we will be back in touch to see if these plans are still under agreement." Kurt said.

The screen for the main task force went black.

All hell broke out, as each of the groups started talking amongst themselves and to the people on the screens. The BAU, Strauss and the Director of the FBI huddled together in their corner to consult with each other. The Director looked at Hotch and said, "I have no idea why they are requesting the BAU in on this, but do you think the team is up for this?" Hotch and Strauss shared a look between them then he looked at the team before answering the director, "Yes sir, we're ready for whatever comes up."

After that the director and Strauss were asked to join in a talk with the CIA and Homeland, leaving the BAU to talk amongst them. Hotch knew the team had hundreds of questions, just like he did. So he said, "Just keep watching and listening, we will piece this together later."

Even as connection with the others was severed, the Task Force side was left open so that Kurt and his team could watch and listen. He looked at Emily and asked, "Are you all right? I know that was hard for you to see them, much less involve them, but it couldn't have been avoided."

"To tell you the truth," Emily replied in a soft sad tone, "I should have done it in the first place."

Kurt looked at Em and smiled at her then said, "We have a long group of volunteers already in place to protect the families of the team, so don't worry."

"Then let's get this over with." Emily said with determination in her eyes.

Kurt looked at his team and had the communications reestablished with the others. Everyone turned their attention back to the screens. Kurt looked at them and said, ""What is your decision?" The heads of all the agencies involved agreed to the plan. They all looked to the screen for a reaction. But all Kurt did was to observe them quietly. Then he looked at his watch and reminded them that they had 48 hours from his mark to be ready. Kurt looked at his number three and that person nodded once before he spoke the work "Mark," all the screens and tablets all went black. Everyone took off to prepare.


	18. T Minus 72 Hours

**Chapter 18: T Minus 72 Hours**

The BAU's ride back upstairs was a quiet one. As the elevator opened to their floor they were met by Section Chief Strauss' assistant, "Ma'am sorry to catch you like this, but the Ambassador is in your office and would like to speak with you and CIA Director Prentiss and FBI Director Prentiss, who will be here in a minute. Also, SSA Hotchner, there is also someone in the conference room that would like to speak with your team."

Strauss nodded to Aaron and said, "I'll handle Elizabeth and the Directors Prentiss in my office, then I think I'll come and join the team once we're all finished, if that's alright with you?"

Hotch looked at Erin and told her to take her time, then come join them when she was ready.

The BAU team headed to the large conference room by the director's office. As they approached the room they all noticed that a couple of the body guards for the Ambassador and the man named Daven were stationed by the doors to the conference room and the other two were at Strauss's office.

As they walked in Daven asked them to be seated. Then he proceeded to speak. "Agent Hotchner, I'm going to get to the point because I know that time is lives in your world. So, what I have for you is information that we are going to be expanding the security detail to cover all the families of your BAU team. I have a list here of everyone that is included and I would like for all of you to look over it and check to make sure that no one was left off."

The team merely looked at each other in surprise.

Hotch spoke up, watching for a reaction as he answered Daven back "We appreciate the sentiment, but we can take care of ourselves."

Daven smirked at Hotch and said, "I heard you would want to keep this in house. But, the circumstances as they are, we cannot allow any possible slip ups. This really isn't open for discussion; teams are already being deployed as we speak to secure your families, for National Security reasons. You will have unlimited access to them of course, when you're not here in Quantico."

Rossi and Hotch shared a look together. But, it was Morgan who spoke up first hotly, "What right do you have to come in here, take our families, and make demands of us?"

Daven looked at Morgan with a glance that would have rivaled Hotch, but it only lasted a second. "Agent Morgan, we have total authority in all matters of International Security details concerning this matter. Your families will be moved to the Greenbriar Resort. They will be compensated for any time missed at work, and there will teachers provided for the children that are in school. We are just ensuring that they stay safe and if there is a problem with that, please tell me now." Morgan looked around the room at the other profilers and they finally agreed to the terms.

"With that settled, we come to another issue." Daven continued on, "I have come here today to ask for your help in since it is tied to the last situation." "We have one fugitive that is currently number one on our Most Wanted list and we were hoping that you might be able to provide an updated profile on him and his organization, with some information that we now possess. For now, let's just say this will be a work in progress, as we learn a more. There could be a possibility that your expertise will have to be used in the field, when we go after this individual during our operation."

Hotch knew this was like dangling a carrot in front a hungry rabbit, so he decided to play along, "We will try and live up to our reputation, who will we be going after?"

Daven knew this team better than anyone of them could have dreamt and two words were all that he needed to utter before drawing them in totally, "Ian Doyle."

Meanwhile next door, the Director's of the CIA and FBI had caught up with Chief Strauss as they entered her office. It was the director who spoke to his wife first, "What's going on?"

The Ambassador had her back to them and they both noticed that she hesitated, squared her shoulders and slowly turned to face them. The look in her eyes was enough to fill them with dread. In all the years that they had been married, Andrew had never seen her with so many emotions written all over her face. Being a Prentiss' she could compartmentalize to the hilt, but that mental armor that she was notorious for looked like it was starting to crack.

The Ambassador spoke with the voice usually reserved for other diplomats. "I was approached a few months ago by this Task Force and asked if I would broker the agreement with all the other parties. As you could imagine I skeptical at first, that is until certain information was divulged to me. After setting up an encounter with the head of the Corporation and getting their blessings, I informed the Task Force of my intent of full cooperation. My next task was to set up the additional meetings with the other governments. And so today, you have now seen the fruits of my labor."

Andrew looked at his wife incredulously as he spoke, "Were you threatened or blackmailed? You know I would have taken care of anything that was thrown your way, to protect you."

"No, I was not in the slightest way threatened, actually I feel incredibly comfortable with this people." Elizabeth answered back. "I have been under their protection for a lot longer than I imagined."

Erin had been watching her friend closely, this whole new attitude, was something foreign to her friend. It bothered her, what had caused this change? So she asked, "Liz, what information could have possibly precipitated this whole shift in attitude. You were never one to bow to pressure, and you could always sniff out anyone that was trying to deceive you."

With that the Ambassador simply walked over to her attaché and pulled out some papers and pictures. As she walked back she quietly said in a very harsh, if not angry tone, "This little war is not over and I am going to use my full diplomatic influence wherever it's needed, to make damn sure that everyone is going to get all the help and support to end this feud."

With that she handed the files over to Gordon Prentiss (Emily's Uncle and Director of the FBI), who showed Andrew (Emily's father and CIA Director) and Erin. Erin snapped her head up in surprise and Andrews jaw dropped. Elizabeth walked over to a high back leather chair and sat down but dropping her eyes to her lap. Then with all the calm determination of the diplomat that she was, and a fire definitely blazing in her eyes as she looked up she said, "I may be a bitch in the diplomatic circuit, and I have done a lot of things that I regret now. But, I will always be one thing…a mother. And, this mother grizzly is going to protect her cub at all cost, no matter who the opposition might be, is that understood?"

"How," Andrew started to say, then paused to collect his thoughts and asked "Where did you get these?"

"I was given the first five pictures a couple of months ago," The Ambassador explained, "But, I was given the rest today, by Daven."

The pictures, that were dated, were of Emily during surgery up through a few weeks ago.

Ambassador Prentiss spoke again to her three closest confidants, "The Task Force was closing in on Doyle when everything happened in Boston and then he disappeared for a time. So they had heard about what had happened to Emily, they kind of silently took over her care. They had someone near her the whole to she was in the Bethesda Medical Center and Paris, they met up with her in Prague and she joined their organization. After a time in Canada, it is my understanding is that she is currently in Germany somewhere with Kurt. She will be one of the assets that will be moving within the next 48 hours, that they were referencing in the meeting. Also, I wouldn't doubt it for minute it that other person who spoke, wasn't Emily herself. With the CIA and the FBI both compromised, we are going to have to be extremely careful, all of us."

"Liz, are you sure that you're ok with this whole thing? I mean this is our daughter that we are talking about here." Andrew said slowly and methodically.

Elizabeth looked into Andrews's eyes and said, "Take a close look at that last picture."

Andrew, Gordon and Erin took a better look at the picture, not only was it Emily in Paris, but in the back ground they saw the image of Doyle watching her from a vehicle not far away. "Since she left Paris and met up with Task Force they are looking after her."

Elizabeth straightened up to her full height, letting her iron mask slide back across her face before saying, "This has got to stop Andrew. Emily is in a much better position now to take on Doyle and I am going to make sure they have all the resources available that they need."

Then looking at Erin she said, "That includes the support from the colleagues/ friends that make up her beloved BAU Team, for whom she loves so much. I will personal pick up the tab for all the time and pay for each one of them, while they are away. They may be needed to pick up the pieces afterwards."

Then looking at the others she said in a voice as close to desperation as someone like Ambassador Prentiss could get she said, "Please, help them. I have had a terrible feeling about this whole thing once I learned that Emily was alive and involved. Emily may not even feel like there is a need to return from this mission, since everyone involved believes she is already dead."

Gordon spoke up for the first time and looking at Elizabeth said, "Liz, the full weight of the FBI will be at the Task Forces disposal. There is more at stake here than just National Security, we want all of our people to come home safely after this."

Andrew was nodding his head in agreement with his brother. Then he said, "The CIA can always be counted on in a crisis, especially if one of own is involved. Who knows, good things may come out of the alliance with the Task Force, which was never on our radar, until now. They seem to have good connections, but well organized."

Then looking straight into Elizabeth's eyes, he saw that she was struggling to keep her shield up so they could not see how scared and apprehensive she really was. Andrew took one of her frail hands in his and said, "We will be there for her, ok? The BAU will never let anything happen to her. We just need to catch up her in the next 48 hours."

All Elizabeth could do was put her head down and nod. No words were needed this time. After a couple of seconds she lifted her head, took a deep breath and said, "Well I need to finish up here, they said I will be joining the others at Greenbrier Resort, to wait this whole thing out."

Andrew leaned over to his wife and gave her a kiss, "Please be careful."

Elizabeth stood up, then much to the surprise of her husband gave him a hug and kiss on the cheek and whispered, "Bring my baby girl home." After they separated, she gave Gordon and Erin both hugs, before turning away. The door was opened by the security detailed that waited for her outside. Daven was waiting for her and then they all walked out together.

Outside the open conference room door the director's, Erin and Hotch watched them leave. As the elevator doors closed, Gordon looked at Erin and Hotch then said, "You talk to the team and the two of us need to get our agencies ready for this discreetly."


	19. Future Diplomat

**Chapter 19: Future Diplomat**

Elizabeth woke early, dressed casually and after retrieving a cup of coffee she went outside to watch the sunrise. As she sat down in one of the chaise lounges out on the veranda, she noted the red sky, but she couldn't shake the feeling that the red dawn was caused by all the bloodshed that presently happening. As she sat there contemplating the day's events she involuntarily shuddered as if someone had walked on her grave, but she shook off the feeling. But at the same time someone walked up beside her, startling her out of her thoughts.

Jack walked up beside her chair, dragging a blanket behind him, then sleepily and shyly said, "Morning."

"Well, good morning young man, "the Ambassador addressed him, "What are you doing up so early?"

Jack replied with tears forming in his eyes, "I had a bad dream." Elizabeth smiled and held out her arms, "Come here baby, come sit with me." Jack crawled on the chair with her. Then he rested his back against her chest and they snuggled up under the blanket that he had brought with him.

The Ambassador put her arms around him making sure he feel secure and stroked his head soothingly as it laid his head back on her chest, "It will be all right honey, you're safe." Jack asked her, "Are you sad and lonely too?"

Liz hesitated at first then she said, "Yes I am. I'm worried about my daughter and if she alright." Then she thought a second before asking what his name was. Glancing back up at the woman, with big Bambi eyes he said, "My name is Jack Hotchner."

Elizabeth was startled, but recovered quickly. So this was Aaron Hotchner's son, the one that Emily spoke about so often, he was so adorable, polite, but scared. "Well Jack, I am Elizabeth Prentiss," She said back to him, "It is pleasure to meet you."

With bright smile lighting up on his face he asked, "You're Emmy's mommy?" Elizabeth beamed at the little boy and replied, "Yes I am."

She watched him closely as the shadow of sadness crept across his handsome features, he hesitated a second before he spoke again, "Ambassdor Lizabeth, I miss her a lot. Daddy said that she's gone away for a while, but I wish she would come home. She's been gone a long time. I hope she hasn't forgotten me."

"Jack I have an idea, why don't you call be Grandma Liz, ok? I miss her too. But hopefully your dad can find her and bring her back to us." She replied. "K Granma Liz." Jack said, settling back in her arms and she rested her cheek up against his head.

They sat there like that for quite a while and Liz could tell by his breathing that Jack fell back to sleep. Elizabeth just sat there enjoying the feeling of the child in her arms.

She lifted her head in acknowledgment as she heard a sound behind them. One of the many armed security personal on the property, walked up next to them and smiled at the sight of the two of them together and quietly asked to refresh her coffee and if she needed anything. She agreed to the coffee, but she smiled at the beautiful blonde man standing there looking at her and said, "I believe that I have everything else I could need right here."

He nodded to her and went back into the resort. As he walked away, she heard him acknowledge others that had started to wander outside. She heard three women as they walked outside. One was the perky blond, that she knew from Agent Hotchner's team, the other blonde and black lady she's wasn't familiar with walked up.

Garcia caught sight of the woman in the chair and headed over to her way. Then she heard her say, "Jess, I think I found our nephew and I think he's in good hands."

As they approached, they could see Jack nestled up to Elizabeth. Jessica saw Jack and said to the Ambassador, "I'm sorry ma'am, but he never usually approaches a stranger."

Garcia snorted a laugh as she set down her equipment on a chair and table next to the Elizabeth. "Jess, this isn't a stranger, this is Ambassador Elizabeth Prentiss." Then she continued the introductions, "Ambassador, this is Jessica (Haley Hotchner's sister) and Fran (Morgan's mother.)

In a very quiet voice as to not arouse Jack, Liz said, "It's a pleasure to meet you. Just call me Elizabeth, no need for titles today."

Jessica started to say, "I'm sorry about him disturbing you…"

Liz cut her off politely and said, "He's not a bother, he had a bad dream and wandered out here. We talked for a while and he finally settled down again. Actually, Jack has been my little angel this morning."

Garcia looked at the Ambassador and recognized the tone of her voice and saw the emotions of sadness and anxiety in her eyes. Her heart shattered for the older woman, because she knew the consequences if this day turned ugly. The two women shared a look between them and smiled reassuringly at each other. Garcia also grabbed her camera to save this moment for all of posterity. What a special moment for both Jack and the Ambassador.

The guard that had checked on Elizabeth earlier returned with hostesses, who brought out several trays with containers of coffee. He went immediately walked over to the Ambassador and spoke quietly to her and she nodded back at him. He gave a nod and more people brought tables out and set up breakfast for the group. It wasn't until the smell of food woke Jack as his stomach started to growl.

He opened his sleepy eyes and looked at the others who had joined them, before looking back at Elizabeth and saying, "Morning again, Granma Liz." Everyone smiled at the two. Then Jack got up and hugged Aunt Pen and Aunt Jess. He looked up to see Uncle Will and Henry joined them, along with a whole host of others.

After Jack got up Liz leaned over to Garcia and quietly whispered, "Have you heard anything yet?" Garcia shook her head no, but added quickly, "Don't worry, they will be fine."

Jack was walking back over to the Ambassador just as Section Chief Erin Strauss walked up to her, and as any good diplomat would do she acknowledge her friend but took the question from the youngster first. Jack put his arm around her leg and asked in a soft voice, "Granma Liz, who are all these people?"

Liz heard Erin stifle a snicker, but considered the question carefully. Then her being the highest ranking official she spoke out so that all could hear her. "Everyone, may I have your attention. My adopted grandson has just asked me a legitimate question that I believe we should addressed, before we all settle in for the fine breakfast that we are about to receive. I believe that since we are going to be amongst each other's company for the next few days that a around of introductions are in order. This way the children will feel a little more at ease around everyone, it is not going to be an easy few days, so the more relaxed we can be the better. I just ask one thing, that everyone do not use titles after this."

Elizabeth looked around her and saw that most of them agreed. I will start this off, so that you know where I'm coming from, so to speak. Pulling herself up to her full height, the regal looking woman spoke, "I am the United States Ambassador Elizabeth Prentiss and adopted grandmother to this handsome young man next to me Mr. Jack Hotchner - (whose father is the FBI's SSA Aaron Hotchner), Fran Morgan (FBI's SSA Derek Morgan's mother), Desirée (Morgan's sister), Sarah (Morgan's sister), Yvonne Burns (Morgan's aunt), etc. The intro's continued on after that until they finally had introduced everyone. Then the Ambassador spoke up once more, "Thank you. Now if you please, breakfast is waiting."

Jessica walked up to Elizabeth and said she would help Jack get his food. That freed up Liz so she could talk to Erin. Erin couldn't help but smile at her friend. What a change in her in just a day. "So, when did this happen, you've only been back in the states for a few hours and you've already been adopted?"

As Elizabeth smiled and waved at the little boy who had stolen her heart she said, "This morning, he needed someone to sooth him after a bad dream and I happen to up so, as they say that's that. Wait until you see the pictures that Garcia took of the two of us."

Garcia popped her head up as she heard someone mention her name. She saw who the Ambassador was talking to and smiled at Chief Strauss. Then, she went back to work tapping furiously on her laptop.

Erin softly grabbed Elizabeth by the elbow to guide her a little way away from the others before saying a little more seriously, "Andrew and Gordon said that everything is in place. Everyone who needs to be here at Greenbriar has been accounted for, so they are sealing up the mountain. They wanted me over here too, just in case the chain of command is interrupted somehow. That's also why they had to physically remove Garcia from her liar at Quantico and transport her here. She will serve as our eyes and ears through this whole thing. The Task Force is finishing up a communications network for her in the building."

Erin watched as Elizabeth digested the information quietly, filing it away in tiny boxes in her mind like Emily was able to do to compartmentalize. Then she addressed her friend again, "How are you holding up?"

Elizabeth let out a big sigh and let her shoulders relax before answering back, "Erin, I have to keep believing that everything will be fine. I now have all these people looking to me for any reassurance and support."

Before she could say anything more though, she noticed that her security man was waiting her attention. She turned to face him as he spoke up, "Ma'am, I'm really sorry to disturb you again. But our last supply truck arrived and I believe that you might want to see what just came in the last shipment."

He made a gesture and a couple more guards appeared with boxes. As Elizabeth peered into the boxes a faint smile started to grace her face. Gesturing for Erin to look, the two smiled at each other and Erin said that she would take care of it for her. Elizabeth just laughed a little thinking about all the decks of cards for the adults, games and toys for the children had come in, someone had thought of everything. So she went back over and sat down and watched the children play, who were oblivious to what was really happening outside of the walls that surrounded them.


	20. T Minus 18 Hours

**Chapter 20: T Minus 18 Hours1**

Emily sat back in her chair, propped hear head up on her fist and leaned against the wall of the jet. She just sat and looked out the window, in deep thought. The plane wasn't scheduled to leave for a little while, but she needed the solitude that the jet provided right now. Her men were outside, loading their equipment into the plane, glancing at her occasionally. They could only guess what their leader was contemplating.

For Emily's part, she was working through decisions that she was getting ready to make. They had received intelligence reports on Ian. It was almost go time for the whole operation and she had to work through her anxiety about it. This was going to proceed regardless if she was there or not, but she had always felt that Doyle was her problem to solve. She realized that she needed to get her head into the game one hundred percent. There was too much at stake.

There was no going back either. She had a job to do. Ian was the one who had actually helped her make up her mind as to what to do. By cutting her off from the BAU team/ family he had condemned her life. Her body was alive yes, but her soul had died along the way. It would have been impossible for her to describe her thoughts to anyone, without sounding crazy. But, Emily looked inside herself and felt nothing. No pain, regrets, love, absolutely nothing. She should have been thinking of her friends or family, but that would have become a distraction again. Not this time, she decided.

She reached over to her briefcase and carefully pulled out a velvet lined bag. Then Emily laid the contents of the bag out on the table in front of her. It was a small device that would be strapped to the inside of her wrist. As the weapons expert explained to her earlier, all she would have to do is flick her wrist to have the detonator pop up. That would activate the bomb. Then she could just simply press the switch, setting off the bomb. The mechanism would only work for her, since it was programmed off of her biometric information. Glancing out the window again, she took note that the actual device itself was currently being loaded under heavy security. She light up a small smile for the men who glanced up at her. Then she turned back to the device.

It was her last resort plan, she really didn't want any of her men or any innocents injured but the brutal reality was that this was war, and people get hurt. But yet that is why she had drawn Ian away from the United States. To ensure that there wouldn't be any bloodshed on US soil, she also knew that she wouldn't be restricted by the law. In this mêlée, there were not going to be any rules or boundaries.

As for herself, she thought, well that is a no brainer – she wasn't going to come back from this fight. Her friends have moved on with their lives, without her. No one any longer loved her, just their memories. She now had no one to go back home to, she was totally alone. But those were the reason that she made such a good CIA operative in the first place - No commitments, family or friends.

Yes she had missed everyone at first, almost deciding to give into the darkness of depression and despair. That would have left Ian with an open shot at the team and Declan. This was deemed as acceptable in her book. No, the devil was hers to deal with. He was the reason she was dead to all who had once cared for her. That only left one option left open for her, kill Doyle. No one would notice if she died again. It was also a way to get around her Catholic upbringing and its view on suicide. She was already going to burn in Hell for her abortion, when she was fifteen. Why not take a long a demon for good measure.

Emily thought to herself about all the death and destruction Ian had left in his tracks. From the hundreds that had been either killed or maimed during his bloody days in the IRA. Or all the Interpol members and their families who had been cut down in his quest to find her and Declan. How could she dismiss the fact that there were others that she did not know about out there? Emily had also not forgotten all the threats against the lives of all the FBI agents.

Thinking about all these things helped her unconsciously to provide the fuel she needed to ignite an all consuming fire that was smoldering within her. There would be no turning back. All she needed was the spark.

A male voice brought her out of her haze, "Ma'am sorry to disturb you, but we're loaded and everything is ready to go."

"Good. Tell the pilots wheels up when they are ready," she replied.

"Yes ma'am, happy hunting," he replied back.

1 Inspired by the song: "I Walk Alone" by: Tarja: Album: My Winter Storm


	21. T Minus 12 Hours

**Chapter 21: T Minus 12 Hours**

The FBI's BAU Team One was told to meet at the BAU as normal and pretend that they had a case, but when they left for their plane they got into waiting SUV's and transported to Langley. There they were driven to a non-descript hanger that was under heavy military guard. The black clad commandoes that immediately met and surrounded the SUV's would not allow them out hanger doors were reclosed. Once that was done, they unloaded the vehicles and looked around but were amazed by the flurry of activity going on inside the hanger.

A commando walked up to the team and said, "Right this way, Daven is over this way."

As they walked passed their black jet over to one of the corners of the hanger, they looked in bewilderment at the amount weapons and ordnance that was being off loaded from a C-131 that was parked at the other end of the large hanger. Containers were staged either by their plane or stacked off to the side. Daven greeted the team as they approached him, shaking hands with all of them. "Good morning. Since our supply plane arrived a little late this morning due to a storm, we have some time before we leave. So, I thought that you and the team would like to get settled in and maybe take a look around. You have free reign inside of this hanger, but for your safety please stay inside."

Hotch nodded to the group and they went to stow their go bags in the plane and take a look around. They approached the other commandoes that were checking the containers of weapons, each one of them offered to show them everything. The team seemed surprised that they weren't stopped or questioned. Everyone just acknowledged their presence, like it was nothing. One tall blonde walked over and introduced himself as Michael. He said, "Morning everyone, I am the Weapons Master for this excursion. I will make sure that you have ample supplies for your mission. Why don't I show you what we are packing up for you."

Michael showed them everything. Rossi was walking slightly behind the group as they walked and talked. He was thinking that this was a lot of fire power, when Morgan dropped back and walked with him. "Rossi, does this look like we're going to war or what?" He said quietly.

Being a former Marine, Rossi replied back, but was still inventorying the weapons spread out in front of them as they talked, "You know Morgan, there is enough fire power here to supply a company of men. They have everything: guns, military grade C-4, grenades, hand held rocket launcher, mortars, knives, night vision goggles, battlefield first aid kits, flak jackets, and headsets."

Morgan shook his head while asking, "There are five of us and how many of them?"

Rossi snorted a smirk at that but replied, "At least we'll go down fighting."

About then JJ caught up with the guys and whistled softly when she saw what they were looking at, "Wow, will ya get a load at all this stuff?"

Reid had joined the little group just as JJ made the comment, "I believe all this is for us."

"How do you figure that, pretty boy," Morgan asked?

"Look at the symbol on the side closely – it is Ian Doyle's trademark four leaf clover but with a slash through it." Reid replied matter of fact.

"Good eyes Spence," said JJ.

Meanwhile Hotch and Michael had noticed that the rest of the team had stopped and were talking. Michael said to Hotch, "You know what, why don't you guys just look around for a while and I'll see how much longer the wait will be."

Hotch walked back to the group and noticed what they looking at, then he listened to the discussion.

He finally spoke up, "So what have you guys come up with?"

Rossi looked at Morgan and he indicated that he should answer that question, "It looks like all this is ours. Reid found Doyle's insignia with a slash through it on the side. We will have enough weapons to take a small country."

"Well at least were not going in defenseless." Hotch said back to them.

Michael walked back up to the group with another man who was carrying five bags. "If your team would like, we have taken the liberty of getting uniforms in your sizes. I can show you where you all can change."

So they followed Michael and each of them disappeared into the rooms. They all met back up at the plane to stow their other clothes in the go bags. All of them were dressed head to toe in black military issue gear; the only difference was that on the arm, they had the insignia of anti-Doyle clover leaf on the arm. The cases of weapons had been loaded on their plane while they were gone to change.

"The only thing left is to change out the weapons that you are currently wearing, please stow them in your go bags. We don't want anything traceable back to you, so we have identical weapons for all you, along with thigh holsters, so you can carry other weapons of your choice." Michael showed them. "We will have Garcia send you a map of your destination on your tablets while in flight. There is plenty of food onboard in case you're hungry. You also might want to get as much rest as you can on the flight, when you land it will be close to our zero hour. We have already preplaced vehicles near where you will land, that will be at your disposal."

Shaking hands with each of them he said, "Good luck and happy hunting."

The BAU team boarded the jet; they stored their bags and settled in. Once they were airborne the captain of the jet came back in the cabin to talk to them. "I just wanted to let you know the jet is yours. Once we arrive at our destination, we will be on standby the whole time you are on the ground. We will be listening to all transmission, so that we can be alerted if anything goes down and you need to get out fast. Also, the plane is capable of being transformed into a working field hospital in case of emergency. All the medical equipment is stored back by the galley. If you think of anything or need anything, just push the button next to the door and we'll come out."

Just as he was getting up he stopped and turned back to them with a smile and said, "After you guys get something to eat and settled in, you might want to activate the computer on the table over there. You have a message from someone known as the "Oracle of Knowing and Seeing All" as she called herself, waiting to talk to her…how she put it…Chocolate Frosted God of Thunder." The pilot walked back to the cock pit chuckling and shaking his head.

Hotch looked at Morgan and told him to get the connection up with Garcia, while the others went for food.

Morgan went over and opened up the laptop, and it activated a connection to the High Priestess of the Techno World.

"Hey baby girl, what's shakin," he said to her.

"Well it's about time you check in with me, I was beginning you'd forgotten me." She said with a pout on her be speckled face.

"Not a chance, you're always at the top of list of things to try," smiling the whole time he giving it back to her.

"Oh, is bossman in the neighborhood," she asked?

Morgan looked over and said, "No, why?"

"You've got to see these pictures I took! Hotch has a son in diplomatic training with the best," she replied back as pictures populated the viewing screen.

"Psst, you guys," Morgan said to the others, with a big grin on his face, as he noticed Hotch go in to use the facilities, "Come here; you've got to see these pictures."

The others wandered back over to the table and looked at the laptop. They saw the pictures of a sleeping Jack and Ambassador Prentiss sitting together on a lounge chair. Then the screen changed as they looked at some of the family pictures of everyone at the resort. They were all owing and awing as they looked at the screen, not noticing when Hotch walked back up and saw the picture of Jack again, with the caption below: "Future diplomat and Granma Liz."

Startling the group, he asked "Granma Liz?"

"Uh, sorry sir" the backstroking computer genius said, "Jack adopted Prentiss's mom after she got here to the resort."

Hotch just smiled looking at the picture of the two of them together. Her arms wrapped around the sleeping form protectively and her head resting on his head.

Rossi looked at Hotch and said, "It could be worse, it could have been Strauss."

Garcia heard that comment and pulled a video up for them to see. It was labeled, 'Granma Erin', it was of Henry, who had food all over his face and their Section Chief Erin Strauss who was trying to clean him up laughing the whole time.

They all laughed at the pictures, before Garcia's image reappeared. Hotch said to her with a big smile on his face, "Thanks Pen, I think we needed that. Keep up the good work."

"No problem sir," smiled Garcia.

"Now returning to the other side of the home front," she said, "The Task Force team is almost done with my new lair. The guys said that I should be up and running within the hour. They said that we don't have any reports so far, but they are waiting until I'm ready before they contact home base."

Rossi spoke to Garcia this time, "We are airborne now, with our destination unknown at the present time. Michael said that you would be supplying us with a map and coordinates once we got closer. Plus he advised us that we needed to get something to eat and some sleep. So we must be heading east, across the Atlantic."

Reid spoke up at this point, "We could be heading anywhere in Europe. We may have to refuel possibly in Greenland. We really don't know if this jet has been altered somehow to hold more fuel."

"Not to mention that there is a heck of a lot of weight onboard right now," JJ added, "With our entire quote n quote, equipment."

"Don't forget the full medical station on here too," Morgan added.

Hotch spoke up, "There is more to this whole thing than meets the eye. Good thing we're playing on the same side with these people." Rossi mumbled, "Thank God for miracles, I don't want them mad at us."

Garcia looked off screen as someone said something to her and she nodded in response, "Well boys and girls, it looks like my new digs are ready, so I'm going to sign off for a little while. I'll call if I hear anything."

"Well, I don't know about the rest of you but I'm going to get some food and then get some shut eye," Morgan said to everybody. Hotch said, "That sounds like a good plan for all of us." So Reid, JJ and Morgan went to the galley. Hotch and Rossi let the others go ahead as they sat and talked for a few more minutes.

"What is your gut telling you right now" Dave asked Hotch. Hotch stared out the window for a couple of seconds before replying, "I don't know, to tell you the truth." "I mean, we have no idea of what were going up against, when we get wherever we're going. All we know is that it's Doyle."

Rossi's blood boiled every time that name was mentioned, "I have to admit," He said, "I hope I get a good shot at that bastard, payback is going to be a bitch for him." Rossi still had nightmares about what he saw in those pictures that Emily had shown him in Canada.

Hotch had to agree with Dave on that one, but something else crossed his mind also. He said quietly, after stealing a quick glance to see where the others were, "I have to also wonder if she might be not far behind Doyle also."

Rossi snapped his head up to look at Hotch, "We'll have to keep that in mind. We sure as hell don't want to caught in a crossfire between those two." Hotch just looked at him with a questioning look.

Rossi hadn't told Hotch what he had found when he looked in that supply room of Emily's, but he had been debating when was the right time would be to tell him.

"What is it Dave," asked Hotch, he had seen the moment of indecision in his eyes.

"When we were in the cabin and I left you two alone: I opened the supply room door and found an arsenal as big, if not bigger than the one we presently have on board," he admitted, "Not counting all the mortars I saw that ran the entire length of the road we drove up."

Hotch got a far off look in his eyes and didn't answer Dave immediately, but Dave caught the vibe.

"Hotch you can't really believe that she was there when that place blew," Dave said.

Hotch answered him softly, "I guess your right. I just wish I knew for sure."

"We both do," Dave replied, "We just need to get into this fight, just in case she is there."

JJ and the rest were coming back to the table when she said with a chuckle, "We left you two some food, but you'd better hurry, I don't know if Reid is going back for thirds."

"Me?" Reid stammered, "Morgan was the one eating out of the containers with his fingers."

Hotch and Rossi got up chuckling and headed to the galley, while the others continued the banter. Once everyone was fed, they spread out all over the plane to get some much needed sleep.

It was quiet when the co pilot walked into the galley for something to drink, so when he reentered the cockpit he turned the lights down back in the cabin for the others.

Then he gave the report to the pilot and engineer, that their precious cargo was finally asleep.

The pilot keyed his mike and passed the information along to home base. Home base acknowledged and informed them to proceed at best speed.

The pilot acknowledged the command; he gave the command to the other two men that they were to proceed to full speed. The engineer flipped a couple of switches and told the pilot that he was ready to proceed. The co-pilot then kicked on the afterburners and jet rocketed off into the dark night sky.


	22. T Minus 6 Hours

**Chapter 22: T Minus 6 Hours**

The pilot entered the cabin and walked over to Hotch and tried to wake him without startling the man, "Excuse me sir," he said to Hotch as he woke up quickly and eyed the pilot, "We will be landing in a few minutes sir, if you would like to wake the others."

"Yes, thank you," Aaron replied back.

He went to each of them and woke them up quietly. Once they were seated and buckled up, the plane started it decent to land. Once they were on the ground, and still rolling the co pilot came back in the cabin to go to the galley to start some coffee for everyone. They came to a halt inside a large hanger, where the doors closed behind them.

They opened the plane door and took a quick look around, finding that there was two guards there from the Task Force. The team reentered the plane and sat back down at the table with their coffee, even joined by the three crew members, just as the laptop came to life again.

The ever perky computer tech came on, "Evening my friendly neighborhood crime fighters! Everyone get some beauty rest?" she asked them.

They grumbled a greeting too her and replied back, "Oh, not a good evening yet" she said "Grrr to you too, have more coffee."

'Well anyways, you drink, I talk, you listen," she told them. "Home base has contacted me with your plans for the day."

Hotch spoke up, "When do we go Garcia?"

"Looks like the baseball game starts in about two hours sir," Penny replied.

"Evening to ya Pen," Rossi greeted her, "Do we have a specific location, or are we going on a wild goose hunt to find the ball field."

"Evening to you, my Italian Stallion," she grinned at him and said cryptically, "Looks like when the team hits the field, the bases will already be loaded."

JJ asked, "Hey there girl friend, any scores from the other games yet?"

Garcia spoke to JJ, "A few, you have to remember there is a huge difference in time zones, it may take a while. But the initial games seem to be going well for the home teams."

"I will be sending the stats to boy wonder's pad, so he can keep track of them for you," she said to Reid, who nodded.

Morgan asked, "Do we have any other local games that we can go catch, besides the one we have tickets for?"

"There will be one more game in the vicinity, but it's sold out." Pen replied back to Morgan.

"That's all the Oracle knows right now," Pen told them before she switched off, "I'll contact you after while with more."

The pilot who had been listening asked, "Do all your conversation go on like this?"

"Actually," Reid spoke up and replied, "Garcia told us quite a bit of information."

JJ continued, "We have about two hours before we move out."

Morgan took his turn after JJ, "Our target has not moved from his current position and he's got a lot of his goons with him. So we will be joining another team that's already here."

"So far, the operation back home has already begun and they are rounding up all the moles and informants with out problems," Rossi said.

Hotch brought up the rear by saying, "The other team near by, believes that they can handle the situation, verification of the target is what we are to check out for them."

The crew just shook their heads at the team and said, "That is why we fly planes, easier to navigate."

The BAU team just laughed. The engineer offered to make more coffee and listen for more updates, while the others started unloading the equipment from down below.

So they all headed out to get started.


	23. T Minus 0 Hours

**Chapter 23: T Minus 0 Hours**

Once the plane was unloaded, they loaded what they thought they would need into the back of the three vehicles. This whole process took almost an hour and a half. Just as they were closing up the backs the engineer stuck his head out and called for them. They all got back in the plane and huddled around the laptop.

Garcia waited for them to sit down before bringing them up to speed. "We have received information that another team has just gone rogue and is in your neighborhood. Home base would like for our team to go over and see what the situation is and report back. I am sending the coordinates to you now."

Reid looked at the map and said. "This is right across the airbase from us, maybe 20 minutes travel time."

"We had better get going," Hotch said to the team.

Rossi spoke up as they headed to the vehicles, "I don't like the sound of a rogue team, we'd better be careful."

Rossi, Hotch and Morgan drove the three SUV's into the night.


	24. And so it begins

**Chapter 24: And So it Begins1**

Meanwhile back at Greenbrier Resort, almost everyone was a sleep. The Ambassador had woken up and was staring out over the grounds thinking when one of the security team came up to her and informed her that Garcia needed her. Elizabeth took off in a hurry and entered one of the ballroom's that was being utilized as a communications center for Garcia. "Garcia, what do you have," she questioned?

"Ma'am, you need to see all this," was all that the tech said.

Liz walked up and looked at the television feeds from around the world, if you didn't know better then people would think that the end of all times was occurring. Everywhere there were reports of gas line breaks, people's homes on fire, riots, mass shooting, buildings exploding, planes crashing, trains derailing into people's homes, car crashes, suicides, the list kept growing.

Garcia threw a glance over at the Ambassador and was shocked at the reaction she saw.

The Ambassador had abruptly sat down in one of the closest chairs; her coloring started to change to a light shade of gray and seemed to be visibly trembling.

Garcia got one of the men with her to go get Chief Strauss fast, he took off running.

Erin came running in and Garcia was talking into her headset and fingers flying, she hesitated long enough to indicate the Ambassador's need. Erin and security ran over to her. Then Erin glanced at the screens and looked on at the horror going on from every corner of the globe, knowing that there was nothing that they could do about any of it, she turned her attention back to her old friend.

1 Inspired by the Song: "Our Solemn Hour" by: Within Temptation Album: The Heart of Everything


	25. Another Warehouse

**Chapter 25: Another Warehouse1**

As the team drove to their location, a storm that was brewing nearby was getting closer by the second. Thick black clouds swirled angrily, whipped up by fierce winds. Lightning stretched its ugly fingers across the sky over head. Thunder rumbled closer to their position. The air was charged with electricity. Any second and the monster would be unleashed.

The warehouse that they drove up to was huge. Morgan and Reid raced to cover the back entrance. Hotch, Rossi and JJ waited for them to get into position. All in the mean time, heavy weapons fire could be heard inside. The BAU team was just getting ready to go in, when an explosion ripped through the building somewhere deep inside. Pieces of debris rained down everywhere, and the ground shook in response. Then power went out.

There was silence for a couple of moments. Then over the headset that the team was wearing, came the command for all teams if they were in the vicinity to fall back.

Rossi and Hotch shared a look when they heard the Phantom's voice over the microphone. It was their turn to take things into their own hands. No more waiting, action was needed. JJ watched the two men, sharing a thought together. Then they both looked back at JJ with a sad, yet determined fire in their eyes.

Rossi mouthed the word, Emily to JJ. Her eyebrows arched into her hairline. She really had no time to figure out how he knew her best friend was still alive and in the warehouse. She just knew that they needed to get moving.

Hotch quietly gave Morgan the go ahead to enter the building. It was pitch black in there. The only lights were from their hand held flashlights and the lightning outside. The team moved out in silence. About half way through they met up with Morgan and Reid, then they stayed together as one unit. At the far other end of the warehouse a gunfire had erupted again. But the team continued on in silence, until they came upon a couple of armed combatants. Morgan and Rossi snuck up on them and eliminated the threat, without a single shot being fired. Stealth was their only friend in there right now.

About a quarter of the way down the warehouse, they stopped to regroup and catch their breath. The radio had been silent for the most part. It was at this point that Morgan made the suggestion that, one of them should seek a higher position to see if they could spot anything from up there. Hotch nodded his agreement and Reid had said that he had seen a set of stairs off their left, so Morgan and Reid went together. The rest of them just stayed together on the main floor.

Morgan and Reid crept up the stairs to a set of cat walks that ran the length of the warehouse. Morgan pulled out his field glasses and about a football field from them they could make out people with weapons shooting at each other and down below. But what Spencer spotted made his blood run cold. From the roof, a silver colored container was being lowered into the warehouse to one of the cat walk cross sections and it looked eerily familiar him.

"Morgan, give me the glasses for a second. Oh god, no!" he exclaimed when he figured out what it was.

Morgan heard Reid's quiet remark and asked, "What is it kid?"

All Reid could do was point up to the roof, which Morgan looked at through the binoculars.

All Morgan could say was, "Aw Shit! We'd better get down to the others and tell them."

The team was still in their defensive positions, when Morgan and Reid rejoined them.

Rossi noticed that both of the men shared a frightened look in their eyes. This couldn't be good, he thought.

Hotch addressed them once they reached the team. "Well, what did you see?"

Morgan replied, "There was one hell of a fire fight going on from the ground to the cat walks above, but it wasn't too much further ahead of them."

But it was Reid's report that shook them. He looked from Morgan to the rest before continuing. He looked at Hotch in the eye and said, "The explosion that we heard before came from the roof. There is a huge hole and there is a team up there lowering a device that looks similar to the one that was detonated in Canada while we were up there."

Rossi was the first to recover from the news and exclaimed, "Sweet Jesus, help us."

Hotch frowned, but his eyes reflected the fear that swept through him for a moment.

The entire team saw the look, and it shook them all. They had never seen the usually stoic, rock solid man look so rattled.

Hotch replied back to them, with a strained husky voice, "I can't let all of you continue with this mission. I want the rest of you to pull back, while I go in there. I signed up for this mission and I will see it through until the end. There's a lot at stake here."

Rossi piped up and told Hotch that he was in it for the duration and that he wouldn't hear of anything else.

JJ told Hotch that she was in, but he cut her off saying that she had Henry to think about. JJ fired back at him with sparks flying from her big blue eyes," Yeah, but I got her into this. I'll be damned if anyone says I can't get her back, not when we are here and this close. I'm tired of all this cloak and dagger stuff, she needs to come home today."

The rest of the team looked at them in confusion. Reid raised his voice to get their attention, "Would guys please stop arguing! Tell us who's here that is so important?"

Morgan did a double take at Reid, before he turned around and angrily looked at Hotch, "Well?" he said.

"Emily is the Task Force Head of the Northern Europe Operations code named: Phantom." Hotch said. "She died in Boston, so that she could go after Doyle and draw him away from everyone who could possibly get in harm's way. Then her mandate was to deal with the threat on his turf. She's now considered expendable. Emily is the one who just gave the command to withdraw. If that fight goes bad, then that device up there is her back up plan to take out Doyle, who is here too and his regiment of terrorists."

The whole team dropped their jaws at that last statement.

Morgan shook his head in amazement, but pushed it aside quickly. "We need to get in there to help, before she resorts to plan B." Everyone shook their head in agreement. They all set off determined to finish this nightmare once and for all.

1 Inspired by the Song: "Invictus" by: Immediate Album: Trailerhead: Saga


	26. Greenbrier

**Chapter 26: Greenbrier **

Garcia was in her element, multi tasking to the hearts content. She was tied directly into the Task Forces main frame, and the amount of information that was passing through that computer was staggering, the reports from the field teams was streaming in at lightning speed now. Even the amount of communications flowing between the individual teams was astounding.

But Garcia had eyes and ears for only one group. What surprised her was another set of communications flowing out from home base concerning the groups in the region where the BAU team was currently. Penny had to dial in and figure out what was going on.

After Erin had finally gotten Liz to settle down a bit, she left her in the hands of the medical corpsman that was called in to help with the Ambassador, and then she walked over to check on Garcia.

Garcia acknowledged the chief, "Ma'am something is going on over in the area of our team, but I can't get a handle on it yet."

"Would it help if I get Kevin in here to help you?" Strauss offered.

Garcia nodded her he as she continued talking over the headset and working her magic on the computers.

Strauss got the security personal to go get Mr. Lynch and bring him down her and have him report to her.

A few minutes later a disheveled Kevin came running up to her and she told him to help, not hinder Garcia. All Kevin had to do was take one look at Garcia to tell things were not going according to plan someplace. So he took off to help.

Garcia spoke up so that the Chief could hear her as she stood and watched the screen, "Chief?"

Strauss came back over to Pen and said, "What's wrong?"

"There has been a report of an explosion and a heavy firefight in an abandoned warehouse near team one." Garcia replied.

She stopped speaking as she listened, then she repeated "A message from Home Base, a Fall Back order was just delivered to that same area." She repeated.

"What the hell is a Fall Back order?" Strauss demanded.

"Aw shit," came from Kevin, Garcia glanced over her shoulder at what Kevin found, and when she turned back to Erin her face was white.

"Pen, what is it? What is that order?" she asked nervously.

Garcia replied back in a nervous voice, "It is an order to clear an area because there is the possibility that a bomb, the size of the one that demolished that area in Canada, is getting ready to go off; it is a call to sterilize an area."

Erin said out loud, "Oh my God, no!"


	27. The Final Fight

**Chapter 27: The Final Fight1,2**

Every once in a while one of the team would glance up at the hole in the roof because they could hear not only was the storm raging outside but they could people shouting, then gun fire. Every so often a grenade would go off in the distance.

The BAU team crept closer until they could actually see the main area of the warehouse where the fighting had been going on. There were bodies from both sides all over the place. They could hear Doyle now, taunting someone.

"Ok, you can come out now. You're cornered, alone and defeated. Come out and face me!" he yelled.

As soon as the person emerged out of the shadows, five of Doyle's men crept out also and encircled the pair.

Hotch and Rossi watched closely how Doyle's men prepositioned themselves. After a few moments of conferring with each other, then he gave instructions for everyone to take one each and take them down as quietly as possible when he gave the signal. This whole plan centered on there being a distraction.

"Ian," The person said a perfectly veiled voice, as she walked out of the shadows. Emily pulled the black hood off her head and tossed it aside. Shaking her head and letting her long raven hair spill down over her shoulders, as the lightning and thunder crashed outside, "Lovely evening, seeing you here."

"Lauren, what a wonderful surprise, you're looking beautiful as ever." He said with a dangerous smile on his face. "No worse the wear from our last encounter, I take it?"

"Oh no, but thank you for asking," Emily replied back with a smirk on her face. This whole conversation taking place while they both changed out the spent clips of their guns, tossing the old clips aside and then reholstering their weapons and circling each other slowly like two tigers as they talked.

Hotch had a funny feeling, that this was going to be ugly. He saw Emily's face for the first time that night. He could tell by her body language that there was going to be an intense fight. Even Doyle's men stayed back, they all knew how dangerous this woman could be, so they didn't approach her since she was still well armed.

"I'm glad that we have the opportunity to continue our last conversation, this time without interference," Ian continued talking as he slid his hand to the knife sheath and pulled the blade out slowly.

Emily only menacingly chuckled at him, and then replied back to him as she drew out her own long blade, "Thanks to you, I have nothing left in my life worth living for anymore. I'm looking forward to our last dance together, Ian; this feud between us has definitely dragged out far too long."

"I never want to disappoint a lady by making her wait for what she wants, as you of all people know," Ian replied to Emily coolly. "Too bad you won't reconsider my offer to come back to me Lauren."

"Lauren was the one you killed back in Boston," Emily commented back to Doyle as she shifted the blade in her hand, "You're stuck with me, Emily, now."

Ian stopped his circling. He looked at Emily with pure hatred and rage on his face as he spoke to her again, "Pity, I loved her so much. I would have done anything for her. But you, you're the one who killed her and you, my love, will pay for that."

Doyle lunged at her and Emily spun away and threw her arm out to slash him with her blade. The moved surprised him as she actually cut a gash on his arm on the first try.

"Well done," he said looking at her in amazement. "But let's see what you do with this."

Emily was surprised when he launched a roundhouse kick at her and connected with her face. It shot stars in front of her vision and she staggered back a little. But Emily recovered quickly and crouched down and tried a sweep maneuver, to take his legs out from under him.

Ian was too wise for that, he barely jumped back in time. But he tried to still throw a punch in her direction, but Emily saw that coming and did a back flip.

"Oh Ian this is going to be so worth the wait, when I finally see the light leave your eyes when I kill you." Emily taunted him.

Ian chuckled at her as he tried to slash at her, "Just wait love, you think it was bad at that warehouse, just you wait. I have other things far more painful in store for you this time. You'll beg me to kill you."

Ian knew he hit a nerve because Emily went into frenzy as she tried to punch, kick and slash him.

"I've died before, what is one more time between friends." She spat back at him sarcastically.

Ian delivered a jab at her with his knife in his rage, she tried to counter the move, but not before it sliced her side, "What's the matter Emily, getting tired? Want to give up now? Just lay down your arms and surrender peacefully. I will make it swift; just like I will when I slit the throats of your team members and their families one by one."

The team had been watching the fight with intrigue and anxiety, they all knew, by the look on Emily's face that Ian was pushing all the right buttons to antagonize her. How much more was she going to be able to take? Just as they thought they better get in there to break up the confrontation, they heard a noise behind them.

"Well lookie here what we have," said a voice directly behind them, "Intruders."

A couple more of Ian's men found them, and at the sound of voices the guards that had been watching the fight came walking over. Before, the guards could raise their weapons, Hotch nodded to the others and everyone launched out at the nearest person and the fight ensued.

Oblivious to the other, Ian and Emily continued on until Ian let loose a punishing series of punches and kicks at Emily that she couldn't dodge in time. Her knife skidded across the floor away from her. She recovered enough to be able to use a side kick to knock Ian's knife out of his hand.

They continued trading blows with each other, Ian wiped blood away for one of the many cuts on his face and said, "I see you've improved your fighting skills."

"Thanks," Emily said mockingly, "But, I was actually holding back when we were at the warehouse, delaying you until my team could reach us."

Before he gave free rein to his wrath, he said, "You don't have that luxury this time. You will suffer a lot, and then die a slow death all alone."

She glanced quickly to see where her blade had landed and made the decision to try for it. Ian saw what she going after, so as she dove head long to get it as he lounged at her.

As she hit the ground, grabbing the blade and turning her body at the same time to meet him, Doyle was already on top of her. The blade slid all the way into Ian's right side. Shock and amazement swept across his face as he realized what had just happened.

Time froze that moment as he sat back on his heels and looked down to see the knife blade buried up to the hilt in him.

Emily was breathing heavily as she looked up into Ian's face and seeing the recognition in his eyes. Then incredibly, she watched as he reached down and pulled the blade out slowly, then dropped it.

Pure rage was etched in the all too familiar face staring at her now. He yelled in fury and grabbed her around the throat.

Emily knew this was it, the one and only chance she had left to take him out.

With the flick of her left wrist she held the detonator in her fingers.

1 Inspired by the Song: "One of Us is Going Down by: Sick Puppies Album: Tri-Polar

2 Inspired by the Song: "This is Gonna Hurt" by: Sixx:A.M. Album: This is Gonna Hurt


	28. Panic Time

**Chapter 28: Panic Time**

"Penny, listen." Kevin yelled at her.

They both sat listening, and they both had the identical look of horror on their faces.

Erin couldn't stand it any longer; she had to know, "What is it?"

Garcia put her head down and started to cry a little and Kevin answered for her, "There is a report from Home Base that the bomb's been activated."

They all held their collective breath and watched the screens.


	29. Plan B Up in Smoke

**Chapter 29: Plan B Up in smoke1**

The team had taken a beating dealing with the guards. All of them were bloody, bruised and battered.

JJ and Reid scrambled over to where they could see Emily They both grasped when the saw their friend, she was bleeding heavily from her side. Shock had to be setting in by now, but she was by no means backing down. Somehow she was still on her feet for the time being.

Hotch came limping over to their position as they watched what transpired next. They noticed that she was looking for something on the ground, a large knife laid a few feet from them. Then watched as both of the combatants dove for the weapon, Emily being closer, got there first. He, JJ and Reid saw Emily stab Doyle.

Ian didn't go down though; his adrenalin was pumping through him. It must have just barely registered to him that he was wounded. They watched in horror as he just pulled the knife out and then started to strangle Emily with his bare hands.

With the last bit of strength that was waning from her body, the team watched in horror as she made one last attempt at killing Doyle. They saw her flick her wrist and the detonator was in her fingers.

Ian caught the movement out of the corner of his eye. In a swift move, he smashed down with his fist on her wrist and hand, snapping the bones. Emily screamed.

Ian leaned forward while on top of Emily and said, "This is it love."

But he made the mistake of leaning too far forward as he had both hands around her neck strangling her. He left his backside exposed and with everything she had left she kneed him, forcing him up and over her head.

Emily struggled for breath and scrambled to get to her feet. Doyle was doing the same thing behind her. At the identical time, they both reached for their guns and turned around firing round after round at each other.

In a flash of lightning from the storm, each hitting their target and both went down. Then there was silence.

1 Inspired by the Song: "For Eternity" by: Vlad Janeck Album: Thee Vampire Guild


	30. The Calvary

**Chapter 30: The Calvary**

Then the five members of the BAU could hear people running towards their position. The BAU team was trapped. They all scrambled over to where Emily had gone down and took up defensive positions with JJ, Reid and Rossi on one knee, then Morgan and Hotch standing. This was going to be their last stand if needed, but they stood as a unit.

Seconds ticked by, and then they were greeted by a sight that made them all cringe. A company of heavily armed military commandos stormed up to them. Guns on both sides pulled and ready to fire.

The first soldier stopped and dropped to his knee and said into the darkness, "It's them, sir."

Another man came running up with the others and stopped dead while taking in the scene in front of him. He took off his mask, stepped forward and said to the team, "It's all right Hotchner. It's Daven and the Task Force, hold your fire."

Just then the lights were turned back on, blinding them all at first. But Hotch saw who it was and told the group to stand down. As soon as everyone relaxed Rossi, JJ and Reid who were the closest to Emily turned their attention to their fallen partner. JJ hissed at Hotch, "Aaron! Emily."

He spun around and knelt down beside her, she was in really bad shape, beaten, bloody, and broken again.

Daven ordered his men to secure the warehouse and call up corpsman. Military ambulances and vehicle drove straight into the warehouse to where the team was located.

The corpsman came running up to the team and Emily as they took over her care. She was now unconscious and losing a lot of blood. They ran triage on her, then carefully placed her on a litter and loaded her into the back of one of the ambulances; they also asked if JJ and Reid wanted to go with her, which they both did. A fleet of military chase vehicles took off with the ambulance.

Hotch, Rossi and Morgan were lead to the other ambulances for triage and a mini debriefing with Daven.

They told him what they had found when they got to the warehouse. Then explained what transpired after that. Daven informed them that they were on the other side of town, dealing with a large group of Doyle associates when they heard the call come from Emily to clear the area. They knew then that they had to hurry and get over here. Emily had told them that she had a hunch about this place. So she took a company with her to check it out. Obviously, they had found the main group and engaged the enemy. Daven said, "I knew we should have trusted her womanly instincts."

Daven took one more look at the BAU men and told the corpsman to load up the rest of the team and get them to the Task Forces medical facilities. They all climbed in a vehicle and another convoy of protection took off.

Then he ordered the sterilization of the site. The bomb that was already at the warehouse would help cleanse the area. With all personal accounted for, he called for the all clear and as they pulled away a huge flash lit up the night sky once again. This operation was finished, but it was still going to be a long night for the Task Force.


	31. Greenbrier It's Over

**Chapter 31: Greenbrier - It's over**

Erin could hear everything that was being said over the speakers, but when everything went silent, it didn't register to her at first. Not until she looked back over at Garcia and Kevin, who had now turned towards the television screens, did it register that there was no talking.

She turned back to the monitors just as there was a huge blindly white flash on one of the viewers. The ball of fire could easily be spotted as it raced up towards the heavens, creating the evil image of a mushroom cloud.

All Erin could get out was a strangled, "No!"

It happened, it was over.


	32. Time to go Home

**Chapter 31: Greenbrier - It's over**

Erin could hear everything that was being said over the speakers, but when everything went silent, it didn't register to her at first. Not until she looked back over at Garcia and Kevin, who had now turned towards the television screens, did it register that there was no talking.

She turned back to the monitors just as there was a huge blindly white flash on one of the viewers. The ball of fire could easily be spotted as it raced up towards the heavens, creating the evil image of a mushroom cloud.

All Erin could get out was a strangled, "No!"

It happened, it was over.


	33. Facts Confirmed

**Chapter 33: Facts Confirmed **

Emily was coming out of her haze when she heard some voices behind her. She could tell by the vibration and the sound that she was onboard a plane. Not wanting to open her eyes yet, she just quietly listened, trying to recognize the people speaking and figure out where she was. Her brain was still fuzzy, but she made out the fact that Dr. Frances was with her. He was explaining to some others, her condition. When the others asked question, that's when it dawned on her that the others were JJ, Reid, Rossi and Garcia on the laptop. Emily sighed; she was with her family again.

JJ said to Dr. Frances, "You know, you look so familiar to me, I just can't place where we met."

Looking at JJ, Dr Frances said cryptically, "Try thinking of a really bad night several months ago, I was with her then as I am now."

Reid and Rossi watched JJ's blue eyes widen to saucers as she put two and two together. "You were there that night, when we brought Emily in from the warehouse."

"How is that possible?" Rossi asked Dr. Frances "Were you part of the Task Force back then?"

Dr. Frances smiled at the three of them, "I was with the team assigned to watching Doyle. We also had been keeping tabs on your team because of the connection to Emily. So when we heard about Doyle disappearing, then your eventually finding them, and then her condition afterwards, well let's just say that my team moved me into position to be able to handle her case. That way we were on the inside. "

Reid had been listening carefully and asked, "Is that the first contact you had with Emily? Is that also when you set up the security detail around Emily and the Ambassador?"

Dr. Frances looked at the young doctor and smiled; "Now I understand why Emily spoke often so highly about you. You catch onto things quickly. Yes that's why we had to classify this as top secret because Doyle was very much still alive. Now you have to remember that neither Emily nor her mother were in any position to protect themselves. No matter who was in the family or their positions of power. To say they were in a precarious position is a huge understatement. Not only that but we had others to protect now that Emily was down for the count, others that she sacrificed her life to protect. We all had a terrorist/ mass murderer/ serial killer on the loose."

Dr. Frances paused for a minute to let the others digest what he had said.

Reid, of course was the fastest and he asked, "Were you with her through her whole rehab afterwards?"

Doc nodded his head yes and said, "Yes, I was with her until they released her to go to Paris. But that wasn't the last that I saw her. We found out early on that Doyle wasn't fooled into thinking that she had died twice. So the Task Force took it upon themselves to get her back into the fold, so we made sure that she met up with our contacts in Prague. We placed her in a remote area in Canada. After she said that she was ready, then we took her back to Germany with us."

"Wait, Emily was in Canada?" JJ stammered looking at Reid and Rossi stunned.

Rossi spoke up for the first time, "That explosion was not an accident was it?"

Dr. Frances replied back to Rossi with a sharp look, "No. We received information that her cover was blown, little did we know at the time by whom."

"That's why we left Canada so fast after the explosion, without an explanation" Reid said softly. Reid's features darkened as he rounded on Rossi angrily and said loud enough to get the attention of Hotch and Morgan. They both headed to where the others were talking. "You and Hotch knew then, you saw her up there, didn't you!"

'Now Spencer..." Dave started to say but was cut off.

"Don't Spencer me. This whole thing is getting better and better by the minute." Reid said.

Spencer was then interrupted by the doctor. "Reid, I have a couple more bits of information for you, which I don't think you have heard yet." He interrupted the two before he had any more patients to deal with on the plane.

"Yes doctor, sorry." Reid apologized.

"First, did the BAU have any idea what Doyle was planning once he found out that she was still alive and in Bethesda Medical Center?" he asked.

Reid looked down and said, "After surgery we were told that she had passed away, we all started to mourn."

"That is exactly what I am talking about. You all let your guard down in your grief," The young doctor continued, "Doyle found out and was planning to detonate truck bombs not only at the hospital, but also on the FBI building at Quantico. We found plans at his safe house, that had each and every one of yours information and schedules down to the minute. He had sleepier cells all over the place. The strange part was that at the last second, they aborted their plans when they found out that she was being transferred to Paris."

Dr. Frances reached over to his bag and pulled out a couple of files. Handing over the files to the BAU he told them to take a look at them and fax copies to Garcia so she could review them also, while he checked on Emily's IV.

Dr. Frances checked on her and quietly said to Emily so the others couldn't hear him, "It is time the team knows the truth. Do you want me to tell all of it or do you want me to stop?"

Emily slowly shook her head no and said quietly, "No, they need to know the truth. This will be for the best. I can fill in the pieces later, if they ask about it."

Emily let a small smile grace her face and said to Dr. Frances, "Thank you, for everything."

The doctor brushed his fingers tenderly down her cheek softly before saying, "Alright then, you just rest."

Dr. Frances walked over to the group of profilers as they poured over the information he had given them.

Reid and JJ were reading the medical reports. Morgan and Rossi were looking at the ATF information on the bombs that Doyle was planning on using. Hotch was looking at the intelligence reports on the sleeper cells that had been collected. Garcia was scanning all the reports that were being downloaded to her computer.

Morgan looked up at Hotch and said, "He was planning to use enough explosives that it probably would have leveled the hospital and FBI building. He had ten times the amount of explosives that Timothy McVeigh used in Oklahoma."

Rossi looked at both men and said, "They really hated each other didn't they?" Shaking his head in wonder he continued, "The bomb that Emily had, would have made Doyle's look like fireworks in comparison."

Hotch looked at both of them with his lips pulled as thin lines and his forehead furrowed at the thought.

Garcia spoke up before Hotch could comment back.

"Um Guys," Garcia said to get their attention, "I have some updated information for you."

"Whatcha got mama?" Morgan answered her.

"I have been able to compare the names against recent information from the Task Force and most of the people on these lists of cells were killed during the operation," she said.

"Good," said JJ vehemently, "They won't be able to harm anymore people and they will fry in Hell for everything they've done."

The men of the group all looked at JJ who was still reading Emily's medical files, they could see that tears of anger and hate in her brilliant blue eyes. They had seen her angry before, but this was definitely not like her.

"JJ, are you all right?" Garcia asked her softly.

JJ glanced at Reid, then looked up at the rest with flames smoldering in her eyes, while saying, "Did you see what he did to her? Emily's lucky to even be breathing today, much less having the strength to go through a second fight with that animal Doyle."

Reid also looked up from the files with intensity in his eyes that shocked all the others. "Emily should never have been put into that situation," he said with venom dripping off every word.

Dr. Frances broke through the tenseness in the plane by saying, "No she should not have been. But, on the other side of it she was forced to do what she was trained to do. Emily took on Doyle for a second time, except this time it was on her terms."


	34. The truth is a hard pill to swallow

**Chapter 34:** **The truth is a hard pill to swallow**

"For all intents and purposes, the Emily Prentiss of old is gone," he continued."

Garcia spoke up with her voice crackling as she asked, "What do you mean she's gone?"

Addressing Garcia, Dr. Frances said, "Emily was completely broken when we got to her. Her will to live was severed. Later as learned the truth as to what happened after he stabbed her, her mind shifted and her sole focus became ensuring that Doyle would die. She had no intention of returning from this operation. It was going to be a suicide mission."

Garcia and JJ gasped at the information.

Thinking back to when they had all found out that Emily was alive and some of their reactions. Rossi asked the rest of the team, "Does that sound like anyone running away from a fight? Emily knew what she was doing from the moment it was confirmed that was actually Doyle that we were dealing with. She was biding her time, drawing him in closer, until the right opportunity presented itself."

"When we were at the warehouse, everyone saw her flick the detonator out, she was going to use it - if Doyle hadn't smashed her hand at the last second, she was going to commit suicide?" Derek said trying to get a grasp on what the doctor had told them.

Reid spoke up timidly, "Emily never had a clue that we were even there. She was probably thinking that we were still in the States. At the time of the fight, we didn't announce the fact that we were there and she only had eyes for Doyle. We all saw the look on her face then. She had resigned herself to doing what she needed to stop him, at all costs this time."

JJ spoke up and said in a chocked voice, "Emily also knew the consequences of another rematch between them."

Rossi looked at Dr. Frances and asked, "In your opinion Doctor, do you think she will ever be the same again?"

"To tell you the truth, I don't think so," he replied. "If you thought she shielded herself from you before, you will be in for a real treat. You have to remember that she had to erect titanium walls to get through what she just did. Those walls will not be easy to penetrate now. Remember that the decision that Emily made to end her own life, to take out this terrorist, was not an easy decision to make. Now that it is over, that decision may play havoc with her psyche for a while."

"Is she so far gone, that even if we attempt it, that we won't be able to reach her?" Hotch asked with raw emotion and concern in his voice.

Dr. Frances contemplated his response before saying, "Let me explain it this way. It would be easier to start off fresh with her. Don't look back at the past, unless she wants to talk about it. If she does bring it up, then you had better listen and help her through it. Don't judge her. As Emily has already judged herself and found herself guilty of whatever sin is eating at her soul."

Morgan had to ask, "Will we need to watch her to ensure her own safety?"

Dr. Frances snorted at that and replied, "She has been suffering from PTSD since her initial fight with Doyle. It manifested when she was in Bethesda. The disorder took further hold when Emily was sent into protective custody."

Realization hit JJ like a ton of bricks. "It was our fault that her disorder is so far advanced. If we had never sent her away, then we might have caught it earlier."

Hotch tried to sooth JJ, "JJ we did what everyone thought was best for her, at the time."

Reid piped up, "What you and JJ thought was good for her. The rest of us weren't included."

Rossi muttered loud enough so that all of them heard him, "Emily didn't have a vote either."

Aaron opened his mouth to reply back, but after seeing the looks of anger from Reid, Morgan, Garcia and Rossi he shut his mouth quickly.

Hotch still needed to ask one more question, "Dr. Frances, do you think she will be able to accept the love we have for her?"

The doctor looked into the eyes of each one of them, as if he was looking into their very souls.

"Emily will have to be loved with a different intensity level than any one of you can imagine," he replied. "She will have to understand what it really means to have sisters, brothers, to be a daughter, and most importantly to be loved whole heartedly as a woman. Just remember that there are scars that can be seen, those will heal. The unseen scars can be the ones that fester into a life threatening problem."

"Also, even though in some small way, I believe that she was in love with Ian at one time, she has to have someone that will show her the true meaning of love and being loved. For the most part, her life has been mostly been devoid of unrequested love." Dr. Frances told them.

Each one of the team members all fell silent, each withdrawing as they mulled over what the doctor has said. The doctor looked at the team one more time before saying, "Now if you will excuse me, I need to speak to the pilots, and then check on my patient."

Garcia spoke up and said, "How did we miss all that? We're supposed to be her friend. No, I take that back. We're supposed to be her family."

Reid replied back, "We never saw her withdrawing from us."

"If we look back, we will all see the subtle hints that went unnoticed," Rossi reflected out loud, "The cries for help, which we all blatantly ignored."

Morgan thought for a second and asked, "You mean like all the times lately that we would go out after work and she couldn't make it?"

JJ spoke up, "Em hasn't been sleeping much either."

"She went back to ticking her nails again," Reid remembered.

Hotch recalled that Emily had become hypervigilant.

Garcia asked, "Jay didn't you tell me that Em had started nightmares again?"

"Yeah," JJ added, "She kept telling me that it was just the bad cases getting to her."

Morgan mentioned that she had nothing eat in her fridge most of the time.

Rossi asked the girls about when they were away on cases that didn't Emily usually wedge a chair under the door knob of their hotel room? Garcia and JJ both nodded in silence.

Hotch mentioned that while they were on away trips, that he had actually found her curled up in a chair of the lobby in the middle of the night.

Rossi finally said, "We all let her down. We let down the one person that never wavered in supporting each and every one of us at one point or another when we've been at our lowest. God, what had they done?"

His words hung heavily in the now quiet plane.


	35. Crumbling Walls

**Chapter 35: Crumbling Walls **

Back at Greenbrier, when Garcia cut the connection with the team she realized that she was not alone instantly. She had been so intent on the conversation that she never heard Strauss walk up and stand nearby. Erin had pretty well heard the whole discussion. As did one other person who had sat on the other side of the room of the dark room silently. But Penny felt the presence of their Unit Chief and turned in her direction.

Erin walked over to Garcia and gave her a hug. It broke Strauss' heart listening to all that the doctor had told the BAU team. She knew they were a very close knit family and this new information could possible shatter the team's spirit. It was never good when one of their team members suffered as much as Emily had. She was such a strong, giving, loving person that Erin couldn't even fathom her being anything else.

Erin tried to smooth down Garcia's sobbing. Once she had quieted down some, then Strauss suggested that she go and freshen up a bit and that she would man the area until she took a break and regroup. Garcia only nodded and left the room for a while.

Strauss collapsed into Garcia's chair and stared at the blank screen, she didn't even notice Ambassador Elizabeth Prentiss until she was within a few feet of her. Erin snapped her head around and said, "Oh my God Liz, you heard all that didn't you?"

The Ambassador stood as if she was made out of stone, with her arms wrapped around herself, but she nodded her head slowly yes. Her face was streaked with makeup from silent tears. Erin got up immediately and approached her. Erin detected her friend shaking uncontrollably and pulled her into a hug.

"Shh," she said quietly to Elizabeth as she rubbed slow her back in circles trying to calm her down. "Emily is a strong woman Liz, you know that. She will have the best care and support that anyone could ever have when she comes back, I swear that to you."

Elizabeth was not a person who would have normally allowed anyone to touch her, but she sank into the hug with Erin and just let go of all the reserve she had in her and just sobbed.

Garcia had forgotten something in the communications room and stepped back in to retrieve it, when the sight in front of her stopped her dead in her tracks. She heard the Section Chief ask the Ambassador if she had heard the conversation with the team on the plane. Then she saw what transpired afterwards. Garcia was beside herself with guilt and sadness at seeing Emily's normally stoic mother fall to pieces. It was too much for Garcia, she left the room quietly closing the door on the two women inside.


	36. Raven Flight

**Chapter 36: Raven Flight1 **

It was still dark outside when the pilot said over the intercom, "Raven Flight, RF001 to tower, Raven Flight requests permission to land."

The Langley airfield to Raven Flight RF001, "Permission to land granted, runway one, then proceed to hanger five."

"Understood Langley," the pilot repeated.

As the jet touched down the BAU team prepared for disembarking, gathering their go bags. At the same time Dr. Frances started to ready his patient for unloading also as they approached the hanger. Once the doors opened the men of the team effortlessly lifted Emily's litter and carried her outside. There were two helicopters waiting for them and they reloaded the stretcher on one with the doctor and the team silently boarded the other. The helicopters immediately took off for their final destination.

Back at Greenbrier, Garcia relayed to Strauss that Raven Flight had just landed at Langley and that the helicopters were going to take off once everyone was boarded.

Everyone was still silent on the flight from the airport to Greenbrier.

As they approached the resort they could see all the families pouring out of the resort to meet them once they touched down. A security team came running up to the landing pad.

The team's helicopter landed first and they jumped out, then they stood off to the edge of the helipad to wait for Emily's helicopter to land next. They all saw the security teams up on the roof of the resort.

Like everything was happening in slow motion, the sun was just starting to come up over the horizon, the first rays of sunlight hit it as Emily's helicopter was landing.

Hotch glanced over saw the Ambassador staring up at the second helicopter, never taking her eyes off it until it landed safely on the ground. Rossi and the others saw who Aaron was looking at; Emily's mother had her hands clasped together over her heart, as it was evident the amount of worry and concern in her body language.

They turned their attention back as the second helicopter landed and the door slide open. The team helped the doctor unload the litter and they carried it slowly up towards the resort. The security detail snapped to attention as they passed.

Morgan could see Garcia closing the distance between them as she rushed to her team. She quickly hugged Morgan and then helped carry Emily up the steps. The crowd parted ways as they approached. The shock was evident on everyone's faces as they passed. There were some murmurings going on amongst them. They stopped long enough for Hotch to approach Emily's mother and take her hand to bring her with them as then went inside.

A suite had been arranged for Emily and her care. The team helped Dr. Frances get Emily in bed. Then the men excused themselves. The woman of the BAU – JJ, Garcia and Strauss all stayed in case they were needed. They watched as Dr. Frances took Emily's mother aside and spoke with her briefly. They were all concerned with her well being also. They had never seen her so unnerved as they did as when they had walked up to her earlier with her daughter on that stretcher.

Before they went any further Dr. Frances took Elizabeth aside. Holding her hand in his he said looking straight into her eyes, "Ma'am I know that you are very much aware of who I am." Elizabeth nodded at him, but couldn't take her eyes off Emily's pale face, and he continued, "I have to tell you right now that we are going to have to get her out of those clothes and get her cleaned up a bit. Now if you don't think you can handle seeing her in this condition, then why don't we have you come back in a few minutes."

Elizabeth snapped her eyes back at the doctor. Her full bearing as an Ambassador came into play, as she pulled herself up straight and as the doctor watched in amazement as a bright aura around her started to show through the darkness that had previously surrounded her.

"Doctor, I am quite capable of helping my little girl," she said to him with a fire of determination building in her eyes, "I may not have been there for her when she was younger. But, I am here now and forever more if she wishes it."

The young doctor smiled at her and turned slightly back to the others, "We are going to get her cleaned up and comfortable before her pain medicines wear off, so we are going to need some help." The others agreed, even Garcia who was the most squeamish of the bunch, wanted to help.

About an hour later, Garcia, Dr. Frances, Strauss and JJ left Emily with her mother. They went downstairs to the veranda and their waiting families. Henry tackled JJ when he saw her, Will gave his wife a hug and kiss, Garcia sought out Derek and his mother, sisters and Aunt for comfort and Hotch motioned for Erin to come over and sit with him, Jack, Jessica and Dave.

Dr. Frances appeared with waiters in tow with glasses of Champaign for all. Once everyone had some he raised his glass and said, "A toast, to a successful operation and to all those who fought this fight and came home safely."

The BAU team looked as one unit up to a single room above them, with the collective thought that they hoped one in particular would return to them safely.

1 Inspired by the song: "The Reluctant Warrior" by: Immediate Album: Trailhead


	37. Finally Safe

**Chapter 37: Finally Safe **

Meanwhile upstairs, Elizabeth sat on the edge of Emily's bed and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her daughters' ear. As she did so, Emily spoke for the first time to her, "Thank you for being here mom."

Elizabeth's eyes started to fill with tears as Emily slowly opened her eyes and she smiled at her mother. Emily reached out and grasped her mother's hand with her good hand. No words were needed between the two women as each could finally read the other like a book.

But Elizabeth needed to Emily hear what she had been thinking, "Em, I will always be here for you as long as you need me. I'm not going anywhere from now on. I'm sorry, for being out of your life this long."

Emily squeezed her mom's hand and said, "The important thing is, we are together now."

They sat holding hands until Emily fell back to sleep with a small smile of contentment on her face.

A couple more helicopters arrived and landed on the grounds about the same time. One was a solid black jet helicopter and the other black one had the FBI's logo onto. The team watched as the occupant of the jet copter got out and waited for the other the man to get out of his. They could tell that the men were very deep in conversation as they never noticed that they were being watched by the large group that sat outside. Erin spoke up quietly, still eyeing the men as they headed inside the resort, "That is one conversation that I'm glad I'm not privy to hear." Hotch and Rossi both nodded in agreement.

Upstairs there was a quiet knock at Emily's door and Elizabeth got up to see who is requesting entrance. As she opened the door for her husband and brother in law, she wasn't surprised at their appearance as much as she was to the guards stationed outside the door and down the hall of their floor.

Gordon and Andrew entered the room as Elizabeth closed the door behind them.

Andrew was the first to speak quietly to Liz as he walked over and sat softly on the side of his daughter's bed, "How is she doing?" He picked up one of his daughter's frail hand and held it in his own.

"She woke for a brief time and we spoke a little," Liz said, "Before she fell back to sleep."

Andrew looked up into the face of his wife and he could see the emotions that she was holding in check.

Gordon could tell by Elizabeth's body language that she had been crying and she was feeling helpless.

"Lizzy, do you need us to bring in doctors for her?" Gordon asked, as he walked over to her and put an arm around her shoulders.

Elizabeth let out a deep sigh and let her shoulders sag a little before replying. "No, there isn't any need for that. Emily is under the care of one of the Task Force doctors." She continued, "Andrew, you remember me mentioning the young doctor that helped me when I was shot by one of Ian Doyle's associates?"

He laid Emily's hand back down on the bed and got up to speak to Elizabeth. "Yes I remember."

"Well Dr. Frances is one of those who were there after BAU team caught up to her in that warehouse. I've already spoken to him and we will have to talk about what he said later. But he was here a few minutes ago and he said that she is fairing pretty good all considering," Liz explained.

Gordon looked between the other two in surprise. Andrew had failed to mention that Elizabeth had been shot. He decided that right now was now was not the time to broach the subject though.

Their talk was interrupted by a small voice saying, "Daddy?"

All three adults whipped around to see an awake, Emily smiling at them. She was not going to let them know what she had overheard them say earlier.

"Pumpkin!" exclaimed Andrew, with a huge smile, as he went back to the edge of the bed and sat back down, taking her hand once more. "God, you had me so worried. I couldn't forgive myself if anything had happened to you."

Emily lightly squeezed her dad's hand as she said, "Daddy I'm fine, we are all safe now."

She looked up into their faces and made eye contact with her parents and her Uncle while saying, "It's over now, and we will all be okay now."


	38. The Power of a Child

**Chapter 38: The Power of a Child **

Meanwhile downstairs, the catering host and hostess started rolling out large tables of food for everyone.

Jack crawled up on his dad's lap and looked at him questioningly.

"What is it buddy," he asked Jack.

Jack thought for a second before saying, "Daddy, is Miss Emmy going to be alright?"

Hotch hadn't really thought about talking to Jack about them bringing in Emily like they had earlier. But looking onto his son's concerned eyes; he knew that he needed to address the situation right now. The only problem now was how to explain it. "Emily was hurt badly when we found her. The doctors worked on her a long time before we were able to bring her home today."

Jack was contemplating what his dad had said to him, then out of the blue he said, "I want to see her, now."

Hotch was taken aback slightly at this declaration from his son. "But she is probably sleeping right now, bud."

"I'll be real quiet then," Jack said immediately without hesitation, "But I want to see if she is ok."

Hotch thought for a couple of seconds before saying, "Alright, let's go check on her then. But you have to be real quiet and don't be disappointed if she is sleeping."

"K." Jack replied hopping off his dad's lap and heading into the resort.

They rode the elevator upstairs and as they got off Jack noticed all the security down the hallway. He looked up at his dad and asked, "Are all the men protecting Miss Emmy?"

Hotch looked at where the men were stationed and answered his son, "Looks like it, bud."

Jack smiled a little and replied back with a smug tone in his voice that made Hotch look at his young son, "Good, she needs to be protected."

Jack grabbed a hold of his Hotch's hand and they walked down the corridor together.

The guards nodded to them in acknowledgement, but did not stop them as they approached the suite that Emily was in. Hotch lightly knocked on the door. Gordon Prentiss opened the door and allowed the two Hotchner's entrance. They were met by Andrew and Elizabeth as the walked into the room. Jack saw Elizabeth and walked over to her quietly and wrapped his arms around her leg and gave her a hug. Then he said something that shocked the others, "Granma Liz, would it be ok if I see Miss Emmy and make sure she is ok?"

With a smile on her face, but a few tears in her eyes she reached down and took hold of his hand and said, "Yes baby, come on." She led him into the bedroom where Emily was laying; he let go of her hand and walked up to the bed quietly."

He stood there for a couple of minutes looking at her, and then he did something quite unexpectant. Jack crawled up on the bed next to her and with his tiny hands he held onto her good hand. Hotch made a move to stop him but Elizabeth motioned for him to stop. She didn't want Hotch to disturb them. Andrew and Gordon stepped up to flank Liz and then stood there watching the scene before them unfold. Jack put Emily's hand down softly on the bed then he lay down next to her. Jack just curled up next to her with his arm around her waist.

What surprised the others was when they saw Emily lift her arm and put it around Jack and draw him closer to her. She opened her eyes and looked down at the small form that was lying with her. Then she looked up at her family and they could see the tears in her eyes. Then she looked back down at Jack.

Elizabeth turned slightly to the men and with a glitter in her eyes said, "I think we should leave the boys alone for a little while."

Hotch could feel the blush creep up his face but he said, "They just brought dinner out to everyone out on the veranda, if your hungry."

Andrew nodded and looked at his wife and said, "Come on honey, you probably haven't had a descent meal all day."

They headed to the door, but Elizabeth took one more look behind her. She had to memorize that picture in her mind, of how content her daughter was with that little boy nestled up against her. Then the three of them left the room.

Hotch walked back over to the bed, when he heard Emily say to Jack very softly, "Hey there, Captain Jack."

"Miss Emmy, you're awake!" he said as he snapped his head up to look at her.

He hugged her tighter around the waist "I was so worried about you!" He exclaimed.

"I missed you too buddy," Emily said with tears in her eyes as she looked up to his father.

There was a light knock at the door and the Dr. Frances stepped inside and saw his patient awake and holding the small child at her side. He just smiled at the vision. "Well, I see my patient is in good hands." He said walking up to the bed.

"You should be doing well enough now that maybe we could set you up a little higher," He said, "Now how would you like that?"

Emily agreed and the doctor raised the head of the bed until she was sitting more or less upright. After checking to make sure she was comfortable he looked down at Jack, "Now young man," he started to say, "You are in charge of her until I get back, make sure she doesn't sneak out of bed for me okay?"

Looking seriously at Emily and nodding enthusiastically he said, "K doctor, I won't loose her again."

Emily had a feeling in her stomach that Jack really meant what he said. He wouldn't let her out of his sight ever again.

The doctor nodded at a chuckling Hotch and left the three of them alone.

Hotch went over and sat down on her bad hand side and brushed her fingers with his. As her bright big brown eyes met his gaze, they both could feel the electricity between them. Hotch reached up and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. Then he cupped her cheek in the palm of his hand and said, "God, I've missed you."

"Aaron, I…" Emily hesitated, and then collecting her thoughts said, "I know that I'm supposed to say I'm sorry for everything. But, I can't right now. So much had happened in the last several months, I don't know where to start."

Aaron held onto her fingers and looked at her, so that she would know how honest and sincere his words were when he said, "Emily, there is no reason to dwell in the past. The monster is gone from your life. Now there is an opportunity for you to have a happy future."

Emily looked down at the little boy beside her, then back up at his father. "You're right of course. But you have to realize that some things have changed me somewhat. I don't think that I'll ever be quite the person I was before."

Hotch of course understood what she was talking about but he still had to ask, "Do you think that maybe you be would able to love us again someday?"

Emily's voice crackled a little as she said with tears forming in her eyes, "Aaron, I have never stopped loving you or Jack. If I haven't demonstrated that to you or anyone else my loyalty to this family, then I never will be able to prove it."

Aaron smiled at her, but Emily could see the spark of anger at what she had said. Then he said, "Emily you have nothing else to prove to anyone, except possibly yourself."

He continued with a soft look in his eyes, "You're going to have to decide what you want in life. Then the next thing for you to think about is who you want in your life for the rest of your life. Not everyone is blessed with a second or even rarer, a third chance at life."

Emily nodded her head in understanding what Aaron was talking about. They sat there for a few minutes just contemplating what had been quietly discussed. There wasn't any tension between them; actually they were very comfortable with each other.

About that time a tummy grumbled next to her. Jack looked at Emily, as he sat up, with his big puppy eyes and said, "Sorry, I'm getting a little hungry."

"You know what baby," Emily said back to him, "So am I."

As if reading her mind, there was a little knock at the door and the Dr. Frances poked his head in, "Is it ok to come in?"

Emily smiled at the doctor and told him to come in.

He opened the door and rolled in a wheelchair. "I thought you might want to get out of the room for a little while. It will be good for you to try and get a bite to eat."

Hotch and Emily looked at one another before saying, "I forgot to tell you that he has ESP."

They both started to laugh as the doctor raised his eyebrows at them about that comment.


	39. Silent Decisions

**Chapter 39: Silent Decisions1**

Everyone was just finishing up getting their food, when they noticed Jack racing out of the resort and heading to the food. They heard him exclaim, "I'll get Miss Emmy a plate daddy!"

They all turned back to the entrance to find Emily sitting in a wheelchair, with her legs covered in a quilt, being pushed outside by Aaron. To say they that they were stunned would have been an understatement. The whole atmosphere of the gathering changed, at seeing Emily there with them. Emily's mom and the BAU team immediately got up and went over to greet her.

Emily held her mother's hand as she looked up at the team and said very simply, "Thank you all for everything."

Jack came back to Emily with biscuit in his hand and offered it to her with one hand, while the other one slipped around her shoulders. "I promised the doctor not to let you out of my sight. But I figured that with my Granma, Granpa, and all my Aunts and Uncles here, you couldn't get into that much trouble." He said, then giving her a kiss on the cheek. Everyone just laughed at the scene.

Derek spoke up, "Jack you should know by now how much trouble she can get into even with us around her."

Jack rounded on Derek with a serious expression and replied back, "Uncle Derek I was hoping that you would be on your best behavior just this once."

"Yeah Derek, you had better be good for once or we'll let young Hotchner give you a royal talking too," said a laughing Rossi.

Derek just stood there with his mouth open looking at Jack, until he recovered enough to mutter out load, "I thought one Hotchner was bad enough, but two? God help me!"

Everyone was laughing at that point.

Emily was laughing hard enough, at the bantering, that her side started to hurt a little. She couldn't help it though; it was just good to be around her family again.

Jessica walked up to Jack and told him that she would help him find some thing to eat.

Hotch rolled the still snickering Emily up to one of the tables. Her mom asked if she was hungry, that she would get her a plate of food also.

The men of the group rearranged the tables so they could all pull up together, as one very large family.

They all sat around and talked for the rest of the evening.

Emily noticed that no one talked about what had happened in Europe or anything else work related. Every once in a while a glance in her direction told her that they were concerned but kept it to themselves. Emily was grateful for the truce that had been established regarding the past events. It would give her time to sort through everything in her head. Placing the different things into her little boxes and sealing away the worst of the memories.

Aaron was right in what he had said to her earlier. She thought to herself, It was time to settle herself down. Looking at the others one by one she thought about each person. Dave had tried to tell her in Canada, what each one thought about her and how she touched each and everyone's lives differently.

Looking at JJ, Will and Henry Emily could see the family bonds clearly. Will was the strength that kept her little sister grounded. Henry kept the world a little brighter for JJ's world of shadows and darkness.

Reid was a world unto himself. He had grown as a person, while she had been gone. The boyish features had been transformed into a strong, self confident person. She had been surprised at first at the changes, but it looked like he was now very comfortable with himself.

Garcia, and Derek were still very close but things had changed in their relationship while she was away. Granted that Kevin and Garcia had been seeing each other for a long time, she could tell though that there was something there keeping them from going to the next stage in their lives. One thing for sure it wasn't like Derek was interfering, he was actually supporting them in whatever was to come.

Emily narrowed her eyes as she looked across to Hotch. If she was truthful with herself, she would have to admit that he was everything that she needed and wanted in lifelong partner. They had just gone through one of roughest patches in their relationship, each suffering differently. But in the end, they were still friends. For her own part, she could admit that she actually felt in love again. Emily had told Aaron that things had changed in her and he had accepted it without out thought or reservation. He was willing to accept her whole heartedly and unconditionally.

Then there was the matter concerning his son. Emily glanced over to the little boy who had miraculously transformed her stoic mother into a caring, loving, protective human being. Her mom had Jack in her lap once again while he colored a picture. But he was talking adamantly to his adopted grandparents and great Uncle about something, like they had known each other their whole lives. Emily caught the look on her mother's face as she looked at Jack and there was there was nothing but pure unadulterated love twinkling in her eyes. Then she remembered seeing that look in her mom's eyes upstairs as they had talked. The ice had finally crumbled between the two women as a lifetime of loneliness and contempt faded away in mere minutes. The stress of the past events had changed both of them, and they both realized that life was too short for everything to continue as they had before. The wounds in their hearts need to start healing. They could finally be the family that Emily had long hoped for in her life.

Emily switched her attention to her other friend Rossi, but was surprised to find that he was actually studying her. "Damn profilers!" she snorted to herself and thought, "So much for the golden rule of not profiling each other."

Rossi had been scrutinizing Emily's facial expressions as she dealt with something in her mind. This had been his first opportunity to watch her up close since they had caught up to her in the warehouse. When they got there, her total focus had been on Ian Doyle. Not even acknowledging the presences of the team. But Dave caught a glimpse of her haunted, cold, eyes.

Ever since they met up in Canada, Dave had been more than worried about her mental state. But then seeing her in that life and death struggle with her nemesis, he knew what frame of mind she was in, and it scared him down to his very soul. He had been a witness to, in every sense, a good vs. evil struggle. During the part of the fight that they could see, Rossi had seen something else reflected in her eyes: the cold blackness of a dead soul. There was no life behind those usually beautiful, sparkling brown eyes.

Ian was the classical narcissistic psychopath, with every intentions of killing the very person he once had loved. He had been a highly skilled opponent of the BAU's. But during the fight, Doyle had turned his full rage on her. They had watched them dance to the lethal music. Each focused solely on the other. Rossi had never seen Emily like that, yeah they had been many situations before, but he had never her seen her fight back on her terms before.

He had seen the outcome of the last confrontation between the two titan fighters, and Emily had suffered dearly from it. That was probably because she had been distracted by the team's arrival and Doyle had taken advantage of the momentary lapse in concentration. Either way, Rossi had learned to respect her skills more after that. Maybe that was part of the problem; the team and others had always underestimated her. If he knew then, what he now about her, things would have been a lot different over the past few years.

Shaking his head a little as if clearing the cobwebs out of his head, he thought, "One thing for sure, Emily had used up another one of her nine lives that night. But that's all in the past now. We are going to have to concentrate on the things to come. Like how is she holding up now and will she ever be able to fully return to them?"

He just continued observing her because as she looked at him, there was something in her demeanor that screamed at him that she was deciding what to do now that she back from the brink. The strange part was that she was doing this right under everyone else's noses, had she really become a ghost to them now? With the look from her, she acknowledged the fact that he had caught her, but not to say anything yet. Rossi just softened his look and smile a little at her. He still loved her with all of his heart. There was no changing that. Dave just wanted her to think through everything and include them.

1 Inspired by the song: "Awake and Alive" by: Skillet: Album: Awake (Deluxe Version)


	40. Feelings Revealed

**Chapter 40: Feelings Revealed**

The Directors Prentiss' had to fly back to DC that evening, but they said that they would be back. But they told the BAU team that they were off rotation for a while and to enjoy the resorts hospitality.

Dr. Frances joined the group and quietly asked Emily how was feeling. She replied back that she was starting to get a little tired.

Emily excused herself from the group, as the doctor was turning her wheelchair around Aaron, reached out and stopped her. He took her hand in his and asked, "Emily would it be all right if I came up later to see you?"

She lifted her eyes and looked at him. Aaron could see a flicker of emotions, bubbling under the surface of her expression. She seemed genuinely surprised by the request, but he also noticed a little fear. Emily bite her lower lip so a second, as if trying to decide how to answer him. Then she did something incredible, she squeezed his hand, a small smile graced her battered face then replied in a soft voice, "Give us about half an hour, then come on up."

Hotch's heart raced at her reaction, his eyes followed her off the veranda and a large dimpled filled smile lit up his face. This fact was not missed by a single person outside that evening. Once she was inside, he turned his attention back to the rest of the family. He was startled when he noticed that everyone had their own smile on their faces. He just said simply, "What?"

Rossi just shook his head at his friend and said, "Oh nothing. A man with a prestigious job with the FBI's most elite Behavioral Analysis Unit, and his IQ cut in half by one smile from an incredible woman."

Everyone just started to laugh, the tension evaporating instantly.

Elizabeth stood up and walked over to Aaron and put her hand on his shoulder. He looked up into her bright sparkling eyes, and he thought he detected a slight hint of mischief in there too. Then she said to him with a smile, "You have our blessings, to make her see that there is more to life, than just all darkness that has surrounded her lately." Then he saw her eyes light up with fire as she spoke the next phrase with a smile still lingering on her face, "Just don't hurt her Aaron, or you will regret it."

The others watched her enter the building followed by one of her security team. It was Erin that spoke to him first, "Aaron, I hope you are sure of your feelings. I don't think that was just a veiled threat. Liz has been changed by this whole matter, and I do not think that going up against her would be a very wise thing to do now."

Some of the others shook their head in agreement.

"Being over at State for that short time, I noticed that even the mentioning Emily's mothers name can cause people to cringe," JJ added.

Garcia spoke up for the first time in a while, "Bossman, I love you to death and you know that, but I have to agree with Strauss. You weren't with the Ambassador when this whole thing went down, it was pretty scary."

Rossi also mentioned, "The dynamics between mother and daughter seems to have shifted in a big way. We thought that one Prentiss was immovable at times and hard to handle, can you imagine what it will be like with the two of them unified."

Reid brought up another point that none of the others had pieced together yet, "Yeah. Now they both have deep allegiances' to the Task Force and we don't have a clue what ramifications that will have on them."

"Speaking of which," Morgan asked, "Is that connection between them and our new found friends going to be a problem?"

Erin addressed that issue, "I don't think so Morgan, except I don't necessarily feel comfortable with Liz or Emily having to owe the Task Force a blood debt."

"What are you talking about Erin?" Rossi asked looking hard at Erin.

Erin put her head down for a second as she collected her thoughts. "Well as you know, the Task Force has not only saved Emily three times, but they also saved Elizabeth's live when Doyle shot her, while traveling overseas."

Hotch's head snapped around to look at Erin so fast, that some of the others thought for sure that he would have whip lash later. "What do you mean, she was shot? No one told us that information."

"Aaron, that information was on a need to know bases at the time. As a matter of fact, I just learned about it a little while ago. By the time I found out, everything else was already in motion." She replied apologetically.

Aaron looked at his watch and as he got up he said to the group, "Well, I had better get going."

Dave looked at him with a smirk on his face and said, "Don't worry we won't wait up for you tonight."

Garcia jingled with excitement as she said, "Just don't forget her delicate condition right now, no fancy stuff with her tonight."

As Aaron walked away, with a dimpled smile on his face, he just swatted the air at them.

He heard Morgan say, "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

Then heard the laughing as some else must have said something back to him.

To tell the truth, Aaron was very nervous.


	41. Overheard

**Chapter 41: Overheard**

Aaron got off the elevator and headed towards Emily's, when he noticed that the door as partially open. He slowed his pace as he approached and the guard who acknowledged him, but didn't say anything.

He heard Emily's mothers' voice and Emily talking. He heard the Ambassador say, "Emily, are you for sure? I mean this is a big decision. Have you talked it over with Aaron?"

"No, not yet," he heard her reply.

"Dr. Frances," Elizabeth said, "Since my daughter has made up her mind, then I agree with the terms of our agreement. Will you contact the others and set everything in motion for us then?'"

"I will make contact with Kurt and Daven and make necessary arrangements for both of you," Aaron heard the doctor say, "That is, if you are both are sure about this?"

"Dr. Frances," he heard Emily say, "Have you not been around both of us long enough to know, that when a Prentiss makes up their mind…"

"Their decision is set in concrete," Emily's mother finished her daughter's sentence.

All three of them shared a laugh.

Then he heard the doctor say, "Alright, I get the point. I can't argue with two beautiful women, who happen to share the same last name of Prentiss."

The doctor bade the women good night and left. He was busy writing something in a notebook as he walked away from the room, so he really didn't even notice Aaron standing there.

Elizabeth said to Emily, "Well, I know you have some company coming up, so I will bid you a good night. I want to start making some phone calls to some friends, who can help us also."

"Thank you for your love and support mother." Emily said.

"You're quite welcome. I said earlier, that I would be here for you, if you so chose it. Just do me one favor tonight though." Liz said.

"Anything," Emily replied.

Aaron couldn't see the smile on Elizabeth's face or the look of mischief in her mother's eyes.

"Just take it easy tonight, no high spirited activities," Liz said to her daughter, "Your still recuperating, remember?"

"Mother!" Emily exclaimed.

"What?" Liz said back cheekily, "I ought to know how the Prentiss blood runs hot sometimes. How do you think I've kept your father preoccupied when we are actually home at the same time?"

"Mother, get out of here!" Emily said while laughing, "I don't need that visual."

"That's alright, I'm sure Aaron is probably on his way up here anyways. I'll leave you two alone," Elizabeth replied, "I love you!"

Emily was smiling when she said back, "I love you too mom, good night."

Liz backed out of the doorway and slightly pulled it closed. Then she turned to face Aaron with a large grin on her face. She said, "Well she's all yours tonight, I'll see you two in the morning."

All Aaron could do was blush at the older woman, and stammered out a "Have a good night, ma'am."

"Oh, I think you have more than earned the right to call me Elizabeth, Aaron." She replied back with humor in her voice. "Have a good night."

All Aaron could do was chuckle and shake his head at her, as she talked down the hall to her room.

Aaron let out a deep breath and lightly knocked on the door. Emily called out, "Come in."


	42. Together at last

**Chapter 42: Together at last1**

When Aaron entered the room, he noticed that Emily was sitting up in bed. The doctor and her mom had helped her get a shower and get changed into some night clothes. Her long hair was still wet and she was struggling with brushing it.

Aaron smiled as he walked over to the bed, "Hi beautiful," he said.

Emily smiled at him and her dark eyes were sparkling when she replied, "Hi there good looking. Where have you been all my life?"

Hey chuckled at her and with a huge smile replied, "Looking for you."

He sat on the edge of the bed took hold of her hand. "How are you feeling this evening?"

"Good, just a little sore here and there." She let him know.

"Well, I am here to help out tonight," He said, "I'm going to go get a quick shower, then wait on you hand and foot. Now, are you hungry? I can order something for us like chocolate and Champaign or maybe some whip cream, how does that sound?"

"Who are you, and what have you done with SSA Aaron Hotchner?" She replied while laughing and blushing.

Hotch was laughing too as he got up and grabbed his go bag, then headed to the shower.

Emily sat and watched him go into the bathroom. "What had come over him," she wondered.

It concerned her though, Emily bit her lip as she thought about it.

Doyle had managed to strip her of everything – mind, body and soul. Her body was in the most unacceptable condition right now, broken and battered from one too many fights. Her soul was even more damaged than her body. "Why would Aaron ever want someone like me? I haven't exactly been truthful about the skeletons in my closet. Much less tell him about the decisions that I have made concerning the future. Oh, what am I going to do? I don't want to hurt him or the team further."

Emily was still in deep thought when Aaron walked out of the bathroom. Her brow was furrowed in concentration, and her eyes were slightly unfocused. He stood and watched for a couple of minutes, he could tell that there was some turmoil waging deep inside her fathomless mind. He was a little hesitant in interrupting the thought process, but his job tonight to make her happy was at a crucial crossroad. So the decision had to be made: disturb her and talk about it or show her how much love they had for her.

So he pretended to just get out of shower and make a little noise, not enough to startle her, to let her know that he was coming back into the room. He said as he walked into the room and dropping his bag down, "Well that feels better."

Emily instant smiled at him, not showing any signs of the internal dilemma that he had previously seen.

He walked over to the side of Emily's bed and said, "Here let me help you; scoot forward a little."

She gave him a funny look and he said, "I'm going to brush your hair and we can watch television or something. Or, you can just lean against me if you want to just talk."

"You sound like a man with a plan," Emily replied.

Aaron climbed in behind her, trying not to jostle her body too much. Once he was settled, Emily handed him the hairbrush. Aaron softly brushed her fast drying hair. She smelled like vanilla and strawberries, it was almost intoxicating. There were a few moments of silence between the couple, as each of them became acquainted with other again.

Emily finally broke the ice by saying, "Boy, Jack sure has grown while I've been gone.

"Yea," replied Aaron, "He's missed you terribly."

"I could tell," Emily said softly, "I take it that you told him something about my being gone."

"I had to tell him the truth." Aaron told her, "I couldn't let him think that he had lost you, like he did Haley."

Emily looked down at her lap and was silent.

"Hey," he said, "I hope you didn't mind."

Emily looked up again, "Oh no, I didn't mind. I'm just glad everything worked out, that I was able to return home."

Aaron thought to himself, "Yes, but you almost didn't return home again."

Then he said, "The important thing is, that you did come home to us."

"Aaron I really wasn't expecting too…" She started to say, but he cut her off.

"Shh," he spoke soothingly to her, "We'll have none of that."

He could tell that she was starting to cry a little and he put the hairbrush down on the night stand. Then he pulled her back against his chest and wrapped his arms around her, her head resting against his shoulder.

He whispered in her ear, "Emily, honey, everything will be alright now."

"Aaron, how can you say that?" she asked. "I'm sure you saw the medical files. I'm not a whole person anymore."

'Emily," he replied, "You are still all the woman that a man could ever ask for in life. Caring, loving, beautiful…"

Emily turned her body a little to see him and asked, "Why are you here tonight?"

The question took him by surprise a little. Recovering quickly he replied, "I thought that you would remember the conversation that we had in Canada, when I said that I wanted you to come home to us. We, Jack and I, love you."

"You still love me after everything that has happened?" she asked.

He said, "Of course. Nothing has happened to make me change my mind."

"But what about what Ian did to my body, all the scars and…" she started to say, but was cut off again by Aaron.

"Em please," he said back, "There isn't anything that he did to you that would stop me from loving you."

She turned her head and said challenging him, "Show me."

Aaron bent his head to kiss her lips.

She responded by letting him lightly trace her lips with his tongue, before parting them. Then they kissed until both had pull back to catch their breath.

As they both panted from the passionate kissing, Aaron moved his one hand slowly from her waist up, barely touching her breast as his fingers slide upwards. He slid his other hand slowly across her waist to rest over her stomach. This light touching was enough to cause a light shiver to radiate throughout her body.

Emily placed her good hand on Aaron's thigh softly and started stroking it lightly. She could feel the response in his body in her lower back, as he started to harden.

They both leaned into another kiss, this time with more passion and need.

Aaron made soft circle patterns with the palm of his hand over her hardening nipples. At the same time, he used his other hand to do the same thing over her stomach. This cause the muscles of her stomach to ripple in response, as it slightly tickled.

A small moan emanated from Emily's throat. This was all the response that Aaron needed.

He slid both hands now, up the front of Emily's body until they reached the buttons that were on her nighty.

One by one, he unbuttoned her outfit all the way down to the bottom. While he was down there he ran his fingers along the top of her laced underwear.

Then he slid his finger back up the middle of her chest to pull both sides back, exposing her voluptuous breasts to the cool air of the room.

He then bent his head down to nip at her neck and ear. He could see that Emily now had her eyes closed and enjoying his touch.

Both of her hands were now on his thighs. The right one was applying a little more pressure as his hands moved in response.

With both hands he held her two breasts and was slowly massaging them, teasing the nipples every once in a while with the pad of his index finger by drawing an eight pattern over the sensitive nubs.

Emily dropped her chin to her chest and had Aaron change sides as he kissed and nipped at her neck and ears.

Her whole body was coming alive with sensitivity.

It had been a long time since anyone had paid this much attention to her.2

Emily could feel the warmth starting to build in the core of her body. Between his warm hands and the cool air, the coldness was dissipating in her soul. It felt so good to her.

But she need more, she needed to forget the past and build memories of something better.

Tonight would be the beginning of all things new. Tonight was time to let go, love and be loved.

"Aaron," she said so quietly.

"Yes love," he replied.

"I need more," she said tenderly.

He could see the look of need in her eyes. He kissed her once more then pulled his body away from her as he repositioned.

Aaron decided quickly that she needed to be comfortable, so he helped take off her shirt and panties. Then he removed his clothes and laid down beside her in bed.

He pulled Emily's body up against him, to spoon with her. Aaron propped up on one elbow and slid his other hand around her waist, drawing her even closer.

He started kissing her shoulder and he manipulated her legs so that one would drape over his legs, giving him access to her.

Then he whispered to her, "Are you sure sweetheart?"

"Please, Aaron," Emily said huskily to him, "I need to feel alive tonight. To feel you love me."

As they kissed, Aaron assumed the "Kama Sutra side sex position" and entered her gently. She was already hot and wet.

She felt him enter semi-soft, it hurt a little, because it had been so long since she had been with anyone.

With gently ministration from Aaron her muscles relaxed.

The kissing became more fevered as his thrusting into her increased.

She could feel him growing larger within her, filling her more and more.

Emily used her good hand to reach back and grip his leg, trying to pull him in even closer and urging him on.

Until Aaron pulled away from their kissing to say, "Oh my God Emily, I can't wait."

She understood what he was talking about, because she was so close too.

With a few more strokes they both exploded, at the identical time, with equally mind numbing orgasms, that rippled time after time within them.

Both of them were exhausted. Aaron reached down and pulled the blankets up over them. Then he wrapped and arm securely around Emily, as they both fell asleep with smiles of contentment on their faces.

1 Inspired by the song: "When you believe" by: Mariah Carey & Whitney Houston Album: My Love is your Love

2 Inspired by the song: "All the man that I need" by: Whitney Houston Album: Whitney-The Greatest Hits


	43. Something's not right

**Chapter 43: Something's not right**

The next morning, the couple walked out on the veranda slowly together. They noticed that the kids were already out on the grounds playing, so Aaron guided Emily to a chaise lounge, before Jack saw her and bowled her over.

Some of the other adults saw them come out, but didn't say anything immediately.

After they saw that Emily was seated, Jessica said something to Jack, who snapped his head around hunting for the couple.

Once he spotted them he exclaimed loudly for all to hear, "Miss Emmy; daddy !" and took off running as fast as his little legs could carry him.

Aaron met him coming up the stairs and as he catapulted up off the ground and into his dad's arms, "Daddy!"

"Hey there buddy, did you have a good time last night," he asked.

With a huge smile and nodding his headed **enthuasitcally**, "We sure did! They had pizza, movies, popcorn, ice cream and a sleep over for all of us. Everyone here has been so nice. It was great fun!"

Jack gave Aaron a funny look, then he nodded over in Emily's direction and ask, "Did you two have a good night? Is she any better?"

"Yes we did bud," he replied to his son, then said, "Emily is doing a little better this morning, but she is still a little stiff and sore, so we might need to be a little gentle with her today."

"Kay daddy, can I go see her now," he asked.

Aaron put him down and said, "Sure, go ahead."

Jack walked slowly over to Emily. He showered her with her kisses and hugs gently. Then he sat down on the chaise lounge and told her about his evening the night before.

Aaron stood rooted to his spot watching the pair of them together.

He barely noticed when Rossi, Jessica and JJ walked up to stand with him.

Rossi said smugly, "Well last night looks like it agreed with her."

JJ said with a smile, "Yeah, she's actually got better coloring today."

"Actually," Jessica said surprising them, "Emily looks like she is positively glowing."

Hotch looked at the others sheepishly and blushed.

Rossi nudged him in the side and said, "Good for you two. I also knew you were an old softy."

If it was possible, the three of them had to agree that Aaron's blush actually deepened into a couple of shades of darker red.

Aaron cleared his throat and looked at them innocently. Then he said quietly, "Emily said that she needed to be reminded, that she was still a whole woman. I was just happy that she wanted to be with me."

JJ put her arm around his arm and said, "We are glad it was you too. It's about time that you two got together, you're a perfect fit."

"Thanks JJ," he said to her, but never taking his eyes off of Jack and Emily, "You know your right though, we do make an awesome team."

JJ looked over at Rossi and Jessica and winked at them.

Jessica said to Aaron, "You know Aaron, I believe that Haley would approve if you moved on now. It has been long enough and you don't want this one to get away again."

"Yeah you're right," he said dreamily to himself but out loud, "I guess I had better take care of that little issue real soon."

Dave clapped him on the shoulder and said, "Come on let's go join them, before Jack talks her ear off."

They laughed and wandered over to the pair and sat down. Others in the enlarged family started making their appearance too, joining in the morning communal.

Coffee and breakfast was starting to be rolled out onto the veranda, so everyone helped themselves. That is the exception of Emily, who had everything appear out of nowhere.

Derek walked up to Emily, gave her a kiss on the cheek, then asked how she was feeling.

She smiled at him, "Better," giving Hotch a look.

Derek chuckled then said, "Well if he's not enough, give me a holler princess."

Hotch gave him a glare, but just enough to show she was all his.

"Oh I don't think that will be necessary, he's full of surprises." Emily commented, earning her a smile from Hotch.

Garcia came bounding over to Emily and threw her arms around her, "God, I was so worried about you. Promise me that you will never, ever do this again!"

"By the look of our fearless leader," Reid said coming up beside Penny, "I don't think she will get an opportunity to get away from him again."

"You are so right Reid!" Hotch said to the group, "She'll never be out of my sight for vary long again." He said, leaning over to kiss Emily on the cheek.

"As it should be," said Elizabeth. The Reid, Garcia and Derek parted ways to sit down and give the women a moment together.

"Mother," Emily said trying to get up out of her chair. Once she had risen, she gave her mom a huge hug.

Liz released herself from the hug and stood at arms length surveying her daughter closely. She could see a glimmer of Emily's old self again in her eyes. That warmed her heart tremendously.

"Come on sweetheart," she said softly, "Sit back down and have something to eat, you look like you could do with a few good meals."

"Granma Liz," Jack said with a big smile for her, "I save you seat next to me."

Hotch and Emily shared a look and smiled at Jack's declaration.

They sat, ate and talked. Once the kids were finished, some of the adults claimed them to go out and play. That left the majority of the FBI team and Ambassador to sit and continue talking.

Hotch addressed Erin and asked, "When are we scheduled to go back into rotation?"

Erin thought about it a minute before saying, "I will have to check with the Director, but the plan was that we will be returning back on Monday."

"The other teams will be rotated here for a bit of rest too," she added.

Aaron glanced at Rossi, and nodded.

"When will the Director be arriving?" Rossi asked.

"I believe this afternoon," Erin looked at Elizabeth for confirmation. She just nodded her head in agreement.

Erin continued, "We have been sending out the other teams for the out of state cases. I want to keep this unit closer to home for the time being, until we can ensure from the other agencies that all the lingering cells have been wrapped up."

"Don't worry Aaron, your team will not be sent out of the state for maybe a month. The other BAU team leaders have already made that perfectly clear to us. That way you all can still come up here on the weekends, and your families are also invited to stay here for as long as need be also. If there is an emergency, you will be available to get up here." Erin said.

"Understood," Was all Hotch said. The others all understood what was being said between the lines.

Hotch addressed Elizabeth, "You will continue to stay here for a while also, won't you?"

"Yes, there are some meetings coming up next week that will be held here. Everyone involved will be traveling in and out of here for security reasons." Elizabeth was relaxed when she replied.

Aaron's eyebrow raised at that information. These meetings probably had something to do with the conversation he had overheard last night.

Erin, Hotch and the others noticed that Emily and her mother shared a look. The unspoken conversation that the two had was interesting to watch. No one really understands how it works, but it was quite evident that something was passing between the two women. The expressions and tiny tics that each one had spoke volumes about the intensity of the topic. Rossi and Reid picked up on the subtle changes in the Ambassador's body language, demeanor and attitude. Emily started to pick at her nails, and she bit her lower lip as they "conversed." The two of them were very in tune to the other. Then Liz gave a silent acknowledgement, in the form of a blink and they snapped out of it like nothing had happened.

Elizabeth excused herself from the table and got up, "I'll be right back," she said, but had her iron mask firmly in place. As she walked away she drew herself up to full height and squared her shoulders. They watched silently as she slipped into the persona of an Ambassador. They noticed that she had summoned one of her bodyguards. He came over and talked quietly with her as they entered the hotel. Whatever it meant, they were all bound to find out about later.

The team looked at one another, but didn't say a word about what had transpired. They would talk about it later.

Emily was looking down at her hands in her lap in thought, when Erin spoke to her, "Emily, you won't be expected back until you get clearance from your doctor."

Emily roused herself out of thought and said, "The doctor said the pins in my left hand can come out in six to eight weeks. Then just therapy after that."

"Cool, then we can brush up on some of your arm wrestling maneuvers," Derek said with a smile.

"No hand to hand combat training for you, missy," JJ said smiling at Emily and Derek.

"Oh JJ," Emily said pouting at her friend, "Your such a party pooper."

What nobody said was what they were all thinking, that she would be lucky to retain all mobility in that hand, thus putting her career in jeopardy, if she could handle a weapon anymore.

Reid spoke up as if sensing what the others were thinking, "Hey, I'm sure that we have stacks and stacks of files that need to be reviewed. I nominate Emily. All she'll need is a brain and right hand to sign off on the files."

"Alright boy genius," Emily pretended to feign anger at him, "Who gave you voting rights, Dr. Reid?"

But the others all laughed, relieving the tension.

Emily fell silent once again.

To the others it look like a veil had been drawn over Emily's face, as a far off look came once again to her eyes and then absently nodded her head once at something. Then it was gone.

Emily was smiled brightly at them again. She leaned over to Hotch and whispered, "I'll be right back; Mother Nature is calling."

Hotch got to his feet and helped her up, "Do you need me to walk you up."

"Oh no," Emily replied happily, patting his arm, "I'll be fine," then she slowly walked inside. The team sat dumbfounded.

Morgan broke the silence first, "What the hell was all that." "Kid, I'll even accept one of your long winded explanations, if it explains what we just witnessed" Looking at Reid.

"Too tell you the truth, I'm not real sure." Reid stated, "I've read about things like that, but I never thought I would see it in person."

Rossi looked at Reid and asked, "In all my years of profiling, I have never seen two people pull that off so smoothly, and effortlessly."

Rossi looked at Hotch, but Aaron was looking up at the hotel with an intense stare.

JJ stated, "And we thought those two weren't very close. They obviously share some kind of bond."

"I'm not a profiler like all of you," Strauss said, "But was that something you've encountered before?"

"No, it's very rare." Reid replied to Erin.

Hotch turned his attention to Erin and asked, "Do you have any idea what the meetings are about and who is coming in for them?"

"No, I'm not privy to that information," Erin replied looking back down at her hands on the table

Not getting anywhere with that subject, Hotch moved on to another one. "Then, why is everyone invited to stay here and allowed to go home yet?"

"Homeland intercepted some traffic, indicating a couple of rouge cells had surfaced. So, for security reason we are going to just extend out the stays here for another week," Erin replied.

"Look Aaron," Strauss started to say, "You and the team need to enjoy the next day and a half. You all will be going back to the office soon enough, why doesn't everyone just enjoy the time off. We will deal with everything as it comes up."

Rossi was nodding his head in agreement. "Spend some time with Emily Aaron. Maybe she might reveal her cards a little to you."

"You're right," Aaron said.

Then he noticed that Emily was coming back out and rejoined the group. He reached over and held hands with her. Emily responded with a smile and squeezed his hand in reassurance. They sat that way for quite a while as the group continued to talk.


	44. Spying on our own

**Chapter 44: Spying on our own**

As the others of the BAU team filed in on Monday morning, they all noticed that Hotch was already up working in his office. They each got their coffee and settled in to start working on the mountains of paperwork that were scattered over their desks. They only looked up when they heard the shuffling of fast feet and the flash of color as Garcia swooped in from her bat cave to head straight over to Hotch's door, knock and enter it, then close the door. She was in there for maybe ten minutes before she came out, flashed them a wave, smile and scamper back to her lair.

Over the course of the next three hours, all the activity up in Hotch's office started to attract the attention of the BAU profilers. Garcia would fly in with something (laptop, headset, etc.) and come out empty handed. If you tried to ask her a question, she was perky, but evasive and vague. Or say, "Just trying to help boss man out with something."

Around lunchtime it was Reid that volunteered to go over to the lair and ask if Garcia wanted anything to eat. That way he could get a look around and maybe pick up a clue as to what was going on. As he approached the door, Garcia buzzed him access, "Hey there boy wonder! Watcha doin over here?" she asked.

"I just wanted to come by and see if you wanted me to pick up anything for you to eat, since I'm going out," he said very convincingly. Garcia was just about to answer him by saying, "That's awful nice of you. For thinking of me like …" when one of her babies alarms went off. She swiveled around in her chair and picked up her keyboard. "Hello. What do we have here?" she said to herself, forgetting that Reid was still standing there.

Her monitors lit up with images. They watched as the Secretary of State was starting to climb out of a helicopter. Reid heard Garcia say into a microphone attached to her wrist, like theirs, "We have party goers arriving, sir." The Secretary walked up a flight of steps and was met by none other than Ambassador Prentiss, her daughter, Kurt and Daven. They all shook hands and walked into the resort.

Garcia swiveled back to face Reid again and said, "I brought a picnic basket for my lunch, but thanks for coming by Reid."

Reid just smiled at her and left the room. As Reid walked back towards his desk, he decided to test a theory. He took the long way back, and looked in Hotch's window as he walked by. Sure enough Hotch was on a laptop and talking into his microphone, with an earpiece on. Something was going on.

Spencer headed back to the bullpen. As he passed Rossi's office, he heard, "Psst, Reid."

He back paddled back to the doorway. Rossi said, "Come in here and close the door."

"Well?" was all Rossi asked.

"Something is definitely going on between Hotch and Garcia." Reid stated. "Garcia is monitoring Greenbrier by way of their security cameras, and she is sending the live feed to Hotch by way of his laptop."

"Did you see anything that was going on?" Rossi frowned at the information, but had to know.

"I was watching when the Secretary of State got off the helicopter and was welcomed by Emily, her mother, Daven and Kurt.

"Hmm. I would love to be a fly on the wall for that meeting," replied Dave.

Reid nodded his head in agreement to that.

Reid thought for a moment before he asked, "Should we say anything to him yet?"

"No," Dave said, "Let's just watch and wait to see how this goes, before we say anything."

"What about the other," Reid said before he left Rossi's office.

"If they bring it up, then you can tell them, we may need as many eyes and ears as possible to keep track of this."

Spencer nodded and left.

Rossi sat back in his chair and contemplated the whole thing.


	45. The true enemy

**Chapter 45: The true enemy**

It was now Wednesday evening and most of the office was deserted, but Hotch was working up in his office. It had been a long couple of days, but he was finally catching up on all the consults. He hadn't really noticed the time until there was a knock at his door and as he looked up he glanced at the time, it was getting late.

Rossi walked into Hotch's office and looked at his younger colleague; he looked tired and slightly thinner. Hotch flicked a glance up at Dave and said, "What do I owe this to?"

"It's getting late and I know that neither one of has had a decent meal or much sleep lately." Rossi said bluntly, "I decided to come in here and badger you until you gave in and decided to go home."

"Just a few more…"Aaron started to say before he was interrupted by something

It was the first time that Rossi had noticed the earpiece, when Hotch put his hand up to it. Then he spoke in the microphone that was on his wrist, "Hold on."

Glancing up at Dave he said quietly, "Was that all?"

"Oh no, this conversation has just gotten a lot more interesting," Dave said giving him a look like this wasn't something that was going to go unsaid.

Hotch rolled his eyes, and said quietly into the microphone, "Send me the feed."

Aaron reached over and turned lifted the lid of the laptop. Then looked at Dave and said, "You're not going to leave this be are you?"

"Nope, so you might as well fill me in on what's going on," he said.

"Fine," Hotch huffed at him.

"Garcia just let me know that there is some activity going on over at Greenbrier that I might want to see," he said.

Rossi got up to come behind the desk. Garcia was on half of the screen, when she saw Dave a slight smile lit up her face.

Then she looked at Hotch unsurely. "Sir?" she questioned.

"It's alright; I'm reading Dave into this whole thing." He said reassuringly. "Okay," she replied.

"I was monitoring all incoming transmission and I picked up something," Garcia informed them.

"What is it?" Hotch asked.

"There is a copter on its way, and they have requested a security team to meet them when they arrive." She told them.

"Do you have any idea who it might be?" Rossi questioned.

"Not yet, but if I was to venture a guess, I would have to say some high ranking official," Garcia replied.

"But who would be coming in so late?" he said out loud.

"Garcia," Hotch asked, "Did finally tap into the microphones?"

"Yes sir," she told him.

"Good, I was getting a headache trying to read lips all the time." Hotch told her.

Garcia just smiled at him. "Hold on," she said, "I'm getting something. They have arrived."

Garcia switched on the live feed just in time to see the security team run outside. The three of them watched as things unfolded at the resort.

Behind the team, Rossi pointed out that the two Prentiss women were present along with an armed escort. Daven and Kurt were on either side of the women also and they watched intently up as the helicopter came in for a landing.

Rossi and Hotch could see that this was going to be an intense meeting, because all of the players were up tight.

The two men watched as Director Prentiss got out of the helicopter and started to walk up to the waiting party. The security team helped get someone else out the other side that had their head covered with a hood.

The Director greeted the others with serious attitude. He explained, "We found some information about one of the moles and we just arrested him. I thought that since this man has caused so much death and consorted with a known enemy. I wanted to hand him over to the Task Force to be handled."

Kurt nodded and said, "What do you have on him?"

Emily's father said, "He's a double agent that is accused of:

Manslaughter - He helped set up multiple families (of different Governmental Security Agencies across the globe), to be slaughtered: including men, women and children

Sedition,

Treason against the United States,

Subversion,

Terrorism: Foreign and domestic,

Espionage - to get close to the FBI's BAU,

He is an accessory in the attempted murder of an Ambassador of the United States.

He is an accessory in the abduction, torture and attempted murder of a FBI Agent twice."

Daven spoke, "Who is he?"

The Director nodded back to security. One of the men leaned over to pull the mask off, but the prisoner tried to struggle to get free.

Dave pointed out that Emily took a couple of steps forward and slightly in front of her mother. No one there really noticed her movement.

Then Rossi and Hotch saw that Emily's right hand had twitched and she was reaching behind her like as was getting ready to pull a weapon.

The mask was yanked off and his face was revealed. They could all hear Emily hiss, "You."

'Hello Love," Clyde Easter said to her with a smile on his face.

"Don't call me that," she said with venom in her voice.

"Why did you do it?" she asked him.

"I've always been on the winning side," he said with a smirk on his face. "And Doyle was winning."

Hotch and Rossi watched as a black shadow crossed Emily's face, her eyes gleaming with fire.

"You gave him the whole team," she said getting angrier, "All those children, you allowed them to die? How could you?"

"Doyle wanted the team who put him away," he said to her, "And he gave me an offer I couldn't refuse."

Emily looked at him dumb founded.

Clyde continued, "So I gave him information on Jeremy, Byron, Kerry, Ron and Frank."

"You knew what he did to those families and you continued feeding him information, didn't you," she asked.

"Well now that you put it that way," Clyde replied cocky, "Yes. He wanted everyone to suffer like he did when he lost Declan. That is why the families died."

"I told him that if he went straight after you, it would be useless. So Doyle turned his attention to the main team that helped you in Italy; Sean, and Tsia. When that didn't work then he tried a different avenue that I didn't see coming."

Emily narrowed her eyes at that and asked the obvious question, "And that was what?"

"Doyle was livid when he learned that Declan was still alive. So he went straight for your mother to draw you out," he said to her. "If that wasn't enough, then his next choice was going after the children of your precious team."

Faster than lightning Emily had her Glock out and aimed it at his face. All the security detail backed away from Clyde.

Hotch and Rossi could clearly make out the look on her face. It was a storm of emotions: revulsion, disgust, fury, and rage.

Clyde was sure that Emily was going to shoot him as she was starting to squeeze the trigger, but then something happened.

"Emily," Elizabeth quietly said with compassion to her daughter, as she took a step forward and laid a hand on her shoulder.

Emily froze instantly in place at her mother's touch.

Still looking at Clyde she said, "I swear to you, that you will pay with your life for the crimes that you have committed. If it's the last thing I do."

After a few seconds that seemed like an eternity, "Kurt," she said.

"Yes ma'am," he replied crisply to her.

"Make sure we have all the information that's locked up in his head, and then take care of this loose end," was all she said.

"Yes ma'am," Kurt replied to Emily, "By your command."

"No," Clyde said to them as he tried to struggle to get free, fear in his eyes.

The hood was placed back over Clyde's head and the security walked away with him still resisting.

Emily dropped her arm and slide the gun back into it holster and stood back up straight, but didn't attempt to move after that, still looking at the place where Easter had been standing just a moment before.

Elizabeth never took her hand off of her daughter's shoulder. But she looked over and made a quick nod and Kurt and Daven left to follow the detail out.

The Director walked over to the two women and hugged his daughter, as did her mother. Emily looked like she was going to collapse.

Hotch finally let out the breath he was holding.

Rossi said, "That was close."


	46. A time to celebrate

**Chapter 46: Time to Celebrate**

The next day, the team was making good head way with all the paperwork. Plus they were helping some of the other teams that helped cover everything when Team A was gone. Even Strauss had come over to offer help reading over some of the consults. The team was mildly surprised, but then again, they had seen Erin in a much different light recently. For the most part, the mood of the group was light hearted despite being a man down.

When it was near lunchtime, Garcia came in from her lair to Hotch's office. She waved and blew kisses at Morgan as she passed by them. Rossi followed her in from his office and closed the door. After several minutes, the three of them emerged and headed out together. Hotch told JJ, Reid, Morgan and Strauss that they would be back after while, that they had to take care of something during lunch.

Morgan, Reid, JJ and Strauss just looked at one another, then they decided to follow suit and grab some lunch also.

A couple hours later the trio returned back to the bull pen. They seemed very pleased with themselves, the others noticed. Even though Garcia looked like she had swallowed a canary. They stayed very tight lipped about whatever they had done while away at lunch.

Morgan tried to weasel the information out of Garcia a few times, but she wouldn't budge. Reid tried his best pout face on Garcia, all that got him was chased him out of her lair. JJ took on Hotch and Erin cornered Rossi, but none of them had any success at finding out what had transpired.

Finally around 5:00, Hotch walked out of his office and waited for Dave to come out with his briefcase. "Night everyone," he called out to his team. Garcia met the other two men at the elevators and left with them. The three of them knew that being silent was causing the rest of the team to have fits, trying to find out what was going on. In the end, the wait and surprise was going to be well worth it.

The rest just glanced at the time then at one another, something was really up. Then they picked up their stuff and decided to follow their leader's examples by taking advantage of an early night.

The truth be told, Hotch was in a hurry to get home so he could call Jack.

After ditching his briefcase, keys, and jacket he picked up his phone, plopped down on the couch and hit speed dial.

"Prentiss," he heard her say.

"Hey there beautiful," he said to her softly.

"Hey there gorgeous," Emily said in a playful tone, "You working late tonight?"

"No, I just got home," he replied and then added, "I just wanted to talk to the two most important people in my life."

He could hear her snicker, "How did you know that I have this very handsome young man sitting here with me?"

"Well in my opinion, I believe my son has a very good taste in women," he said lightheartedly. "So, I figured he would be either with you, or your mother."

Emily laughed at that one but replied, "I'll let you talk to him before it gets too deep over here."

He could hear her say something, all of a sudden he heard a very excited voice cry, "Daddy!"

"Hey there buddy," he said, "How are you doing?"

He heard Emily say something, as Jack got quiet listening to her.

Then he said, "Miss Emmy went to go get us something to drink."

"How is Emily doing Jack?" Hotch asked his son.

"A couple of days ago she was kind of down," he said sadly.

"Then yesterday she was pretty good, until last night," Jack told his dad.

Hotch's interest was piqued and he grew concerned, "What do you mean?"

"There were some loud noises outside last night that woke me up," Jack explained. "I couldn't go back to sleep, so I just lay in bed for a while."

"A while later, I heard voices in the hallway so I snuck over to the door and looked out," he continued. "Granma and Granpa Prentiss were helping Miss Emmy back to her room."

"How did she look to you, when you saw her," Hotch asked.

"Remember when you brought her home from her trip? And how pale she looked, because she was hurt?" Jack asked.

Hotch answered, "Yes bud, I do."

"Well she was that gray color again," Jack stated as a matter of fact.

"When Granma and Granpa left, I snuck into her room with the key she gave me," Hotch smiled at the thought of Emily giving his son a key to her room if he needed her.

Hotch had to ask, "What did you find when you got to Emily?"

Jack continued his story, "When I walked up to the bed, Miss Emmy was talking in her sleep and shaking all over, like she was very cold. So I covered her up with the blankets and lay down next to her. After a while Miss Emmy stopped talking and shivering. When I woke up this morning, Miss Emmy was happy again."

All Hotch could do was smile as his son spoke. He had a picture in his mind of everything as it was happening. "I'm very proud of you for taking care of Emily for me for me last night."

"Daddy," Jack asked.

"Yes Jack," he answered.

"Can we keep Miss Emmy," Jack said, "I like her a lot."

"That will be up to Emily to decide, bud." Hotch replied with a little surprise, "But maybe we can talk about it when we come up there tomorrow night. How does that sound?"

Hotch couldn't see Jack bobbing his head up and down, but Jack said, "Kay daddy. Miss Emmy is back, do you want to talk to her?"

"Sure," he said, "Love you! See you tomorrow night."

"Kay, Love you too daddy," was all he said and was gone again.

"Well did you two boys have a nice talk," Emily asked with a deep husky voice.

Hotch smiled to himself then answered her, "It was good talking to him. I told him, the team would be coming up tomorrow night."

"Good. I can't wait to see you," she said happily.

"I did hear a rumor that your mom is throwing some sort of party on Saturday night," he said.

"Oh," Emily replied sounding confused a little, "I haven't heard anything yet. I guess I'll have to track her down and her ask about it."

Hotch replied back, "It is our last weekend at the resort. Maybe she is just having a little shindig before everyone leaves."

"My mother, having a little shindig, yeah right," Emily snorted. "Since when…"

"It'll be fun," Hotch said to sooth her, "Who knows, it might be kind of fun. God knows, we all need to celebrate something."

"Yeah we do, don't we," Emily said distantly.

"Hey," he said trying to break through to her, "You still with me?"

"Oh yeah," shaking herself out of her revere. "Sorry, just thinking.

"About what," he asked.

"Nothing," she replied faintly.

Hotch's curiosity perked up at her tone, "What's the matter, hon?"

"Really, it's nothing," Emily replied with melancholy in her voice.

"Emily," Aaron said becoming a little concerned about her way of thinking, "I think I know you better than that by now. And I can tell when there is something making you sad."

Emily hesitated but finally said, "I just wish we had something to celebrate."

Aaron wanted to tell her something, but he stopped himself. Thinking it better to wait and see her the next day.

"We can celebrate your return and rejoice that your safe and sound," Hotch said trying to deflect her mood.

"That's true," Emily responded back, changing her frame of mind somewhat. "But I think you and I should talk. There are a few issues that need to be out in the open."

"We can talk for as long as we need to," Hotch was a little concerned by her last comment, but he simply said, "Emily whatever is troubling you, we can work it out together."

"I miss you," was Emily's response back.

Aaron was mildly surprised, but he had so much to confess to her. He kept it simple for now by saying, "I miss you a lot too. I see you as soon as I can tomorrow, ok?"

"Okay. Good night." She said before hanging up the phone.

Aaron put down the phone and sat there staring out at the dark room.


	47. Reunited

**Chapter 47: Reunited**

The BAU team all went to work real early that morning. They worked steadily and silently. There seemed to be an air about them as the day progressed. It didn't go unnoticed by the other teams. It almost felt like they were giddy bunch of high school seniors, who were trying to get their work done before the big prom. This energized atmosphere was also not lost on the powers at be. The upper echelon knew where the team was going to be headed that evening, so they made sure nothing new headed their way.

The truth be told, since the round up of terrorist cells, moles, drug lords, the death Ian Doyle and finally the capture of Clyde Easter the National Security emanate threat level had been lowered. All fanatic activities had more or less completely ceased. It also seemed like the serial killers of the country were laying low. They were probably being cautious since the recent heavy police activity.

This was a good time to be in the law enforcement field. A massive blow to criminal world would have a ripple effect. The administration of the FBI also knew that it was due largely to the work, dedication, and sacrifices of a single team, plus a new ally.

So when 2:00 rolled around, Erin and the director wandered into the bullpen area. Their presence instantly grabbed people's attention and brought others out of their office instantly. Once the director saw that he had everyone's attention, he thanked everyone for their hard work over the last couple of weeks. He also made the announcement that he wanted everyone to shut down and spend the rest of the day out of the office.

As other's were getting ready to leave, the director and Strauss caught Hotch and team one. They set up the plan to take the company vehicles, in a caravan, with them so that all the families could be brought back home on Sunday. While the others left to get their stuff, Hotch asked if he could speak to the director alone. As they walked away, Erin walked over to Rossi and Garcia who hadn't moved away from their spot. They were watching the two men talk.

Erin looked at them suspiciously and said to them quietly, "I take it, that this has something to do with what you three have been plotting quietly for the last few days."

Dave looked at her with mischievous smirk and replied, "Don't have any idea what you're talking about Erin."

When they saw Hotch and the director shake hands and Aaron turn around, he had a large smile on his face, Dave and Garcia glanced at one another and shared a knowing smile.

Rossi and Penny heard Erin mutter under her breath as she walked away, "Yeah, you two are sweet and innocent angels alright, sure."

"We'd better get our stuff," Dave said to Garcia, "This party is getting ready to roll and I for one don't want to miss it."

Later all of them met down in the garage and took several SUV's and headed out for the four hour drive to Greenbrier.

By the time the team's caravan arrived around 6:30, most of them were stiff from sitting so long and hungry. As they climbed out of the SUV's, a security detail monitored the baggage carriers and they were directed to the veranda entrance. As they rounded the corner, they were ecstatic with the reception that greeted them.

All the families were out on the grounds with signs, balloons, hugs and kisses.

That is with the exception of two beautiful regal looking women, standing their side by side at the top of the steps, waiting on them. **i**

A vision of elegance was the only way Aaron could best describe it to himself.

After giving his hugs and kisses to Jack, he set him down on the ground, Jessica caught Jack's attention and kept him preoccupied while his father took a tentative step towards the mother and daughter team that captivated his attention.

This was not lost on Dave and Penelope, who were watching Aaron closely, with interest.

Reid watched Hotch when he saw his boss catch a glimpse of Emily and the Ambassador.

JJ and Morgan noticed the others attention being drawn else where, so they joined the other three.

Morgan whispered to JJ, "What's going on?"

With smile lighting up on her face JJ said, "Look at Hotch."

"I didn't know they were a couple," Reid said softly.

"They aren't, yet" Penny said in a hushed tone, "It's so romantic."

"Shh," Rossi said to the others, "Watch and learn children."

Walking up next to the team another voice was heard, "Ah, there are my girls."

Looking over at Rossi, CIA Director Prentiss said, "Seems the ladies have rendered your fearless leader speechless. They do command an audience when they are together."

They all watched as Hotch got over his shell shock and approached the women.

"Ma'am," he said bowing his head and then looking at the Ambassador.

"Good evening Aaron." She said. A smile crept across her face, as Elizabeth watched Hotch look over to her daughter, mesmerized.

Elizabeth had a bird's eye view when Emily looked up at him, and their eyes locked onto each other; their feelings for each other were very evident.

With a nod to herself, she decided to shift the attention off of the couple; Elizabeth spoke to the rest and told them to come in that dinner was waiting for them.

The director walked up, joined his wife and they walked in together. The rest of the clan followed them inside, leaving Aaron and Emily alone.

As the team passed by them, each one had a content smile on their faces, but said nothing.

Once everyone had gone in and they were alone, did they express how much they had missed one another.

Aaron swept up to her and drew her into a passionate kiss.

Emily melted into his arms, holding onto him very tightly.

Finally they drew apart, both panting for air.

"God Emily," Aaron said with a husky voice, "You look so beautiful tonight."

"I've missed you too Aaron," Emily said with sparkling eyes.

After a few minutes Aaron said, "We'd better go in, before your mother sends the team to come looking for us."

"I don't think you have to worry about my mother this time," Emily said, "You forget daddy is here."

Hotch laughed as he tucked her arm around his and led Emily inside to join the others for dinner.

The whole atmosphere was light hearted at dinner. The food was wonderful and the company was exceptional.

i Inspired by music from: Prelude (On Earth as In Heaven) by: Globus

Album: Prelude (On Earth as in Heaven)


	48. The truth

**Chapter 48: The reveal**

Later that evening Hotch and Emily sat in her suite. They were both nervous and at first, at a loss for words. Hotch noticed that Emily was picking at her nails again. He had to get her to open up to him. So he decided to just jump in with both feet.

"So, have you decided where you're going to live when we get back," he asked.

Emily didn't look up at him at first but let out a sigh and said," Mother has offered for me to stay there for a while, if I wanted."

Hotch was a little surprised by this information. "Are you thinking seriously about that?"

"Aaron," Emily bit her lower lip and thought about what she was going to say, "I don't know right now. To tell you the truth, I am just now starting to figure everything out."

"Em," Aaron said, "I realize this has been hard on you, but you have to remember that we will be here for you."

"I know, but the others are going to have to realize that things have changed," she said, "I've changed."

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.

'I'll be fine eventually," she said unconvincingly.

"You have to start somewhere with the healing process, why don't you let me help?" Aaron asked questioningly.

Emily lifted her head and looked at him strangely, how could she tell him all her fears? How could she tell him that he was part of her problem?

When she looked at him funny, Hotch could sense something. Why was she holding back? Had he missed a signal somewhere?

"Aaron," she finally said. "There is so much going on in my head right now. I can't eat, sleep, even being in that banquet room with all those people made me feel sick to my stomach."

"Have you talked it over with your doctor," he asked.

"A little, but you know how I am about doctors," she said deflecting the question.

"Em, please let me in," he said, pushing a little more.

Emily abruptly stood up, wrapping her arms around herself, and turned her back to him as she looked out the window, "Why Aaron" she hissed. "Why do you want to get yourself mixed up with me right now?"

Aaron spoke soothingly to her, "I care a lot about you. I thought I had shown you that the other night."

Still not looking at him, "We could always forget what happened, if you want."

"What?" he said quickly, "But I thought we enjoyed being together that night."

"We could chalk it up to my being desperate to forget past events." She said softly.

"No Emily, you know better than that." He replied back showing a little hurt and anger.

"Don't you realize that I am broken?" she finally asked.

There it is, thought Hotch; the truth is starting to reveal itself.

"What do you mean broken?" he asked.

"Do you really want to know? I mean really, Hotch." she asked him.

When he said, "Yes I want to understand this better.

Emily continued, "The time away and the loneliness affected me deeply. I had a lot of time to reflect back on my life. What Doyle did to me, not once but twice – 'I have walked through the valley of the shadow of death'1, one too many times. I wished that everything had ended in that warehouse, one way or the other. When it didn't, I thought about doing it myself, to finish the job that Ian had failed." she answered him.

The pain, hurt and suffering was evident on her face, even in the reflection on the window.

"I didn't realize that it had gone that far," he acknowledged.

"No man deserves used goods. You and your wonderful son deserve better, a woman who is whole," the brunette said to him.

"Don't ever let me hear you say that again," he said angrily.

That got her attention, as she snapped her head up. As Aaron got up to approach her, she pivoted around to face him and he stopped dead in his tracks when he got a good look at her again.

The iron mask that she normally wore was in pieces. All the walls, that normally shielded her, were crumbled away. She took a step back from him and assumed a defensive posture, all the blood drained out of her face, and he could clearly see fear in her eyes.

Damn that Ian Doyle! He thought to himself. This once strong, proud woman is cringing away from me, like I'm going to hurt her.

Aaron stopped short, her whole demeanor screamed at him to take this very slowly.

"It's alright, I'm not going to hurt you," he said to her, "I never would. You mean too much to me."

She looked up at him, her big brown orbs locking onto his eyes.

"Emily are you listening to me?" he asked. When she nodded, he continued. "The last thing in this world I would ever do is hurt you. I love you too much."

"You love me?" she questioned.

"I have for several years." Aaron said softly to her. "I've just been too stubborn to say anything. Plus I didn't really know how you felt about me. Not to mention the fact that I have a son already."

'But Aaron what about all the things that I've said, how can you possibly still love me?" she asked.

"Very easily," he said, smiling at her. "You're smart, funny, beautiful, mine and Jack's best friend, and a woman that any man would be proud to call his wife."

Emily bit her lower lip and too, a tentative step towards him.

As she moved towards him, something flashed across her face – recognition.

"Wait, did you just say you loved me and you want me to be your wife?" she said in wonderment.

Hotch reached in his pocket and got down on one knee in front of her, then opened up the small box for her to see. "Emily Elizabeth Prentiss, will you be my wife? He asked shyly.

"Oh my God, Aaron!" she exclaimed with tears in her eyes as she saw the beautiful ring inside, "Yes, yes, yes!"

He took the ring and slide it on her trembling left hand carefully, mindful of the damaged hand that was still in a cast.

Then he stood up and took her in his arms. They passionately kissed for what seemed like forever.

When they pulled apart finally, Emily had a hard time catching her breath.

Hotch led her back over to the couch and helped her sit down.

"What about Jack, does he already know?" she asked him.

"We've already talked about it, and he was really excited when he figured out that you would be his step mom." He told her proudly.

"What about the team? When are we going to break the news to them?" Emily asked him.

"Well actually…" he stammered.

Emily was a little surprised by his reaction, "Who already knows?"

"Dave and Penelope helped me pick out the perfect ring for you." He said a little embarrassed.

She looked back down at the large carat diamond that had her birthstone on either side; it was absolutely stunning to look at.

"Oh no," she said all of a sudden.

"What's wrong," he asked concerned.

"My parents, how am I going to tell them?" she said.

"That's the nice part of this whole thing," he replied.

"What do you mean" she asked.

"I have your parent's permission already." He told the astonished brunette.

"They already know?" she said looking at him funny again.

Aaron looked at her with a smirk and said, "You wanted to know why your mother wanted to throw a party tomorrow night. Well she was just planning ahead."

"That sneaky woman!" she said with a scowl on her face, "I've been with her all week. She never left a clue."

Hotch snickered at her and said, "She is an Ambassador, and she knows how to keep things close to her vest."

"The only thing, I guess, that's left is to tell Strauss." He continued, "They won't want us being on the same team."

Emily got nervous all of a sudden.

"Um Aaron, I have something to tell you," she said looking down at her hands.

"Wait a second before you tell me," he said getting up off the couch, "I want to get something for us to drink, since we're still trying to get you hydrated."

Hotch came back and handed her a glass, which she sipped.

"What's do you have to tell me?" Aaron asked.

"It will affect the team," she replied.

"Ok," he said, "We'll work through it, whatever it is."

Emily took a deep breath and then let it out slowly, trying to slow her heart rate down.

"I'm leaving the BAU." She said looking up at him.

"What, why?" he asked anxiously.

Emily bit her lip again, but said, "As I was trying to explain earlier, things have changed and so have I."

Hotch just watched her, but didn't interrupt.

"I don't think that I would be happy coming back to the team, since so much has happened. They grieved for me when I died. There will still be raw feelings. I also don't want to hamper anything."

"What do you mean by hamper?" Aaron asked her.

"Every time we go out on a case, I don't want for everyone to feel that they need to watch or protect me. It will get in the way eventually." Emily explained.

She continued, "Plus, I'm tired. You and I both know that I may not be able to do the job anymore like I want."

Hotch put his head down and thought about what he was going to say next. "You know that this is going to be hard on them. They just got you back, again. But, I see where you're going with this though."

"Thank you, sweetheart." Emily said to him.

"Have you thought about what you might want to do now?" he asked.

"Actually, I've already been offered a job." She said.

Aaron head popped up at that, "Where?"

"The State Department is branching out a little to work with the CIA, DOD, and now the FBI to encompass a new security division." she told him.

"Who's in this group and want crazy person did they get to head up this new division." Hotch had to ask.

"Funny you should say it that way," Emily said with a little smile on her face.

"You?" Aaron said.

"The Task Force is being rolled up into our security branches and so Kurt and Daven will head this new group. They have asked my mother to be their Ambassador for the new group, and I will be working for my mother as a consultant, linguist and liaison."

Hotch just stared at her. "You and your mother working together under the same roof; heading up a newly formed spy network. You're kidding right?"

"Nope." was Emily's answer.

"Wow! You're right; now that we're getting married I can see why dinner parties are going to be a little more interesting at your parents place. I mean the CIA, FBI, and the Task Force all under the same roof."

"Pretty cool, if you think about it." She said with some humor. "So what do you think about all this? Is everything still going to be alright between us?"

"Once the team finds out, we know what their reaction will be. But once they find out about us, then things might smooth over faster." He replied. "And as for us, as I told you, nothing will change the way I feel about you. I love you very much."

Emily looked at Aaron and she could see that he truly loved her. She told him, "I love you too."

1 **Psalm 23:4 ****King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)**"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou _art_ with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."


	49. The announcement

**Chapter 49: Announcements**

The next day was a flurry of activity. A lot of the women decided to use the spa to get their nails and hair done, for the party that evening. The men of the group watched the kids play and talked. Everyone was in good spirits. The atmosphere was charged with electricity, it was going to be a very special evening for everyone.

As the day started to wind down, different people started wandering back in to start getting ready.

By 5:00, all the clan was starting to meander down to the veranda. The staff of the resort had really gone all out with the decorations for their final evening. The trees were sparkling with little lights. Torches were lit in other areas. A balloon archway had been erected over the entrance. An open bar had been wheeled out. Music was playing and the children even had their own area set for them to color or play if they wanted to.

The heavy security detail presence was mostly hidden from view for the most part, but a person could sense that they were around.

Around 5:30 Rossi and Hotch stood together talking until Dave noticed that Aaron had started to say something, but stopped speaking. His jaw dropped, and a stupid smile started to form across his face. Dave thought he caught something else twinkling in Aaron's eyes. It wasn't until Rossi turned around and looked at what had captured his friends attention, did he recognize the look in Aaron's eyes.

The Prentiss's had just walked out. The Director had a lady on each arm. It was Emily that had stolen Aaron's breath.

Rossi smirked and quietly whispered to Hotch, "Breath Aaron. Do you need my handkerchief to wipe the drool off your face?"

Aaron shot Dave a scowl, but his eyes never wavered from the vision before him.

"Wow, Miss Emmy looks butiful," said a little voice next to the two men.

Aaron and Dave both snickered as they looked down at Jack. His eyes glued to Emily also.

They both shared an identical glare at Dave, when he said, "Like father, like son. He got those genes honestly."

The three of them just watched. Emily had on a long, v cut neck, dark red, dress, that had a split up the side almost to her hip. Cubic zirconium was sewn into the spaghetti straps. Her long dark hair was pulled back revealing more of her porcelain skin around the neck and shoulders. The drop diamond and ruby earrings she was wearing glittered in the lights. Her high heels matched her dress color, but they accented her long legs. Emily seemed to glide along as she walked.

Rossi and Hotch never heard others walk up behind them until Reid said awestruck, "Holy crap, look how beautiful she looks."

Derek gave a low wolf whistle and said, "Bossman, I know that she's your woman, but damn. I hope you don't mind if I can have at least one dance with her, do you?"

Aaron's pride swelled up inside of him as he heard Dave reply back quietly, "Take a number youngster. The three of us saw her first."

Reid piped back up and said almost in a whisper, "I'm after Jack."

Derek just looked at Reid in disbelief. This caused the men to laugh.

"What are you four gawking at over here," asked JJ as she and Garcia joined the others.

When the men didn't answer right away, the girls followed their gazes. Garcia spotted Emily first as the brunette walked around with her parents, as they mingled. "Wonder Woman dressed to the ninth tonight, didn't she? Garcia said to JJ.

JJ just smiled at the look on the fellows faces. "Yeah, and she sure can command a room."

Garcia looked with amusement at the guys. "Looks like Em's dance card is going to be busy tonight."

JJ looked again at the men and quietly said, "I hope they remember to let her rest a little between dances and behave like the gentlemen that we know they can be."

Garcia added her two cents by saying, "Oh, you mean by not acting like cave men."

Rossi spoke up, with a glint in his eye, at that comment, "Hey, that's not nice. We resemble that."

They all joined in a laugh. That is when Emily finally saw them.

Emily heard the team laugh and her attention was drawn over to them. What a handsome looking group they all were too. The men were all dressed with their suits and the girls all had on beautiful dresses.

She excused herself from her parents, to walk over to where the team was standing.

She noticed that they were intently watching her every movement. Emily wondered what Aaron was thinking as she caught the look in his eye. They were dark orbs, so full of emotions that it surprised her.

She looked into each of their eyes and could read their expressions so clearly. They really were truly happy to have her back. Their family was complete again.

But was it really? What were they going to think after this evenings announcements, would they understand?

"Stop worrying, and enjoy the moment," a little voice in her head told her.

So as she approached them, she couldn't help but have a huge smile on her face. All it took was a look at little Jack standing there with the adults just gaping at her. She really did love this little boy with all her heart.

Then she gazed up with her long lashes, into the eyes of the man, who had risked all to save her.

This evening was going to be very special indeed.

"Well don't you all look nice, all dressed up," she said to them.

Jack was the first to speak up, "You look butiful Miss Emmy."

With sparkling eyes she looked down at the little boy, "Well thank you, Mr. Hotchner."

"You look pretty spiffy too, Captain Jack," she replied to him.

Looking up at the elder Hotchner she said in a hushed tone, "Hey there."

"Good evening," Hotch said with a huge dimpled smile on his face, "Jack was right, you look incredible."

"Thank you," she responded with a staggering smile of her own and a slight blush in her cheeks.

Looking at the group she asked, "You ready to party?"

With nods of their heads and comments like of course. She turned around and held her right hand out for Jack to take. Hotch immediate went to her left side and linked her hand, with the cast on it, around his arm. Emily led the band of merry people inside.

The others followed the group inside.

The banquet rooms had been set up with a long table in the front of the room and other tables scattered around, they had open bars. A huge dance floor was set up in the middle of the room, with a DJ set up in the back of the room. Decorations had been erected all over the room. There was even a photographer there to capture any special moments.

The BAU team walked up to the front of the room and the ladies dropped their bags off at their table and sat down. Rossi volunteered himself, Reid, Jack and Morgan to go get drinks for all of them as he noticed Aaron's hesitation.

Dave made a stop at the DJ and spoke to him for a second before following the others.

Around 6:30 dinner was announced, so everyone took to their seats. The mood was light with banter and laughter as they ate. When dinner was over and they were being served Champaign, the Ambassador stood up and lightly tapped the edge of her glass to get everyone attention.

"First off, I would like everyone to please give a big round of applause to the Greenbrier and it's staff for everything they have done for us over the last couple of weeks," she said.

The room erupted in loud applause. Once the noise died down then she spoke again. "There are several announcements that need to be made before we continue this celebration."

The Ambassador hesitated for a moment before continuing, "As most of you know, I had retired from serving as Ambassador for the United States. But, an opportunity has been presented to me and I will be returning to duty effective Monday."

The BAU team looked at one another in surprise, then down to Emily who was intently watching her mother, to see her reaction.

The Ambassador looked down at her husband before continuing. He gave her a smile and a nod. "As you know, the Task Force that has risen out of the ashes of recent events has asked me to be their representative. I will have all the power of a full diplomat, but I will now be heading up a newly created arm of the Department of State with direct ties to the Task Force, CIA, FBI, DOD and many other agencies." A round of applause went up for her as she sat back down.

To the surprise of all, Emily was then next to stand up. Hotch held her hand as she said, "As everyone in this room is well aware, I have been away for quite a while working with Interpol, CIA and most recently with the Task Force on an assignment. But my home and heart has been with my family at the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit for the last several years, until now. This has not been an easy decision for me to make. But I have been told by my doctors, that I will be unable to resume my former job with the FBI, due to my injuries. So, I want to announce that I will not be returning to the Bureau."

Emily couldn't look at the team, as she heard the collective gasp from the team as she hit them with the news. The only one that didn't react was Aaron. Emily looked down at him for strength. He simply gave her an encouraging smile and nod, as he continued to hold her hand.

She licked the corner of her lip, rolled her eyes up to the ceiling for a second, let out a deep sigh, and recomposed herself before saying, "I want to also let you know that I have accepted a position within the State Department as liaison, linguist and consultant. I will be working with my mother in the newly formed counter intelligence agency. This will be effective immediately."

She looked down and hesitated for a second as she tried to regain some control over her emotions as she told them, "This...I'm sorry …"

Emily couldn't continue as she started to crack. Aaron understood how hard this was on Emily, so he stood up and started rubbing the small of her back to calm her down. Then he helped her sit down. But he didn't sit right back down, instead he stepped behind Emily and gently placed both of his hands on her cool shoulders.

Then he spoke, "As you might imagine, this news could be devastating news for our team, or should I say our family. But we need to remember, that when one door closes another will usually open up somewhere else."

Hotch's comment peeked the curiosity of the team.

Looking down at Emily, she gazed up at him and gave him a watery smile. He turned to the team and said, "We will actually not be losing a family member with Emily's departure."

Hotch glanced over at the team again and he noticed that Rossi and Garcia looked at each other. Dave winked at Penny and she smiled at him. They both smiled back up at their Team Leader.

But, when he got a confused look back from JJ, Reid, Morgan and Strauss he said, "I want to announce that my son Jack will be getting a wonderful stepmother, and I will be gaining a friend, partner and wife, as Emily and I are engaged to be married."

Rossi, JJ, Reid, Morgan, and Penelope were a mess of emotions; they were both ecstatic and heartbroken. But they still all got up and came over to congratulate the couple.

The DJ said, "Well, we have had our first request for the evening. The first song goes out to Emily and the second one goes out to Aaron..."

The couple looked at one another in surprise. Then they glanced over at a very proud looking Rossi, who was looking at them with a smirk parked on his face. Before the music started Aaron looked at Emily and held out his hand for her to take. They walked out to the center of the ballroom. The lights were turned down around the room and a spot light came on.

Aaron wrapped an arm around Emily's slim waist, as Whitney Houston's "All the Man That I Need" started to play. The couple started slow dancing to the rhythm. As they danced they never looked anywhere else but into each others eyes. Not until the tempo changed when the second song started to play. The DJ played Whitney Houston with Enrique Iglesias's song "Could I Have This Kiss Forever" for Aaron. They were having the time of their lives as Aaron showed the group that he was very light on his feet. Aaron was mindful of her injuries and broken wrist as he spun Emily around and glided over the floor to the salsa type beat. Once the music was coming to a close, Hotch did a dip and as they straightened up they kissed. The room erupted in applause, hoots and hollering from the BAU peanut gallery.

The couple returned to the table for a breather as the music picked up. Morgan took Penny, Reid asked JJ, and Rossi invited Strauss, the Prentiss's even joined in and went out on the dance floor along with and other couples to the dance floor, leaving the Emily and Hotch alone to watch. They even saw Jessica trying to teach Jack how to dance; much to the amusement of everyone else around

The rest of the evening was spent laughing, dancing and spending quality time with each other.

Tomorrow would start another whole chapter in each of their lives.


	50. Credit is due

Chapter 50: Credit is due

Disclaimer: I don't own CBS or Criminal Minds.

I just borrowed their wonderful characters.

I hope you have enjoyed this story.

Please drop me a message if you enjoyed it or not.

I haven't written anything in a long time so any suggestions are welcome, since I'm a little rusty.

Thank you to my cohorts at work for encouraging me in this endeavor.

This is my first and hopefully not the last.

I'm thinking that the next story will probably be a Crossover between Criminal Minds/ NCIS.

Until next time, hopefully.


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